stice Rahman Oshodi made the ruling on Thursday, overruling objections by defence counsels who had argued that the documents were inadmissible. The court also ordered a trial-within-trial to determine whether the statement made by the second defendant, Henry Omoile, in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was obtained voluntarily.
Emefiele and Omoile are standing trial on a 19-count charge bordering on abuse of office, gratification, accepting gifts through agents, corruption, and fraudulent property transactions.
During Thursday’s proceedings, the court admitted a set of documents extracted from the mobile phone of Emefiele’s former Executive Assistant, John Adetola, as part of the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Lead prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), continued with the testimony of the eighth prosecution witness, EFCC operative Alvan Gurumnaan, who detailed how investigators traced multiple cash transactions allegedly linked to Emefiele.
Gurumnaan told the court that the EFCC uncovered how Emefiele allegedly received $600,000 both directly and through proxies. He said a contractor with the CBN, Victor Onyedua, confessed to paying kickbacks to top management officials of the apex bank before being paid for executed contracts.
The EFCC tendered additional documents to confirm contract awards linked to the payments. However, defence lawyers — Olalekan Ojo (SAN) and Rasheed Gbadamosi (SAN) — objected, claiming the documents were uncertified public records.
Oyedepo countered, arguing that the documents were original correspondence submitted by the contractor during investigation, and therefore admissible. Justice Oshodi agreed with the prosecution, ruling that validly admissible documents include all attached materials, and admitted them as exhibits.
The court also admitted Adetola’s mobile phone, an MI 10T device, as an exhibit after confirming it was switched on and in flight mode.
In his testimony, the EFCC witness read WhatsApp messages between Omoile and Adetola, where Omoile allegedly instructed Adetola to deliver $400,000 to “Oga” — referring to Emefiele. The witness said Adetola later told investigators he delivered the money to Ayo, an aide to Emefiele, who in turn confirmed handing it over to the former CBN governor.
Further investigation revealed another $200,000 payment allegedly made to Emefiele directly in his Lagos office. Contractor Onyedua also admitted in his statement that he made both payments to facilitate outstanding contract payments.
The defence objected to the admissibility of Omoile’s statements, arguing that they were made under duress. In response, Justice Oshodi ordered a trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness of the statements and adjourned proceedings to December 2 and 3, 2025.
The court also fixed November 21, 2025, for a report on the forensic inspection of Adetola’s phone and WhatsApp chats earlier presented by the EFCC.
