A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has applied to Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja for a forensic review of a mobile phone used to extract some WhatsApp messages presented as evidence in his alleged Fraud trial.
Mr Emefiele’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo SAN, wants the court to allow the defendant call a forensic expert to examine both the phone and the printed conversations, as well as whether the screenshots admitted as Exhibit in Court genuinely originated from the phone of a business partner of Mr Emefiele.
At the last hearing, a lead investigator with the EFCC has testified of how an aide of the top banker allegedly collected a total sum of $17.1million on his behalf from the businessman over a period of three years.
But, the prosecution counsel, Chinenye Okezie, in her response to the defence’ application on Tuesday, told the court that by virtue of the rules of evidence and practice, once a piece of evidence has been admitted as Exhibit, the Court becomes the custodian of that Exhibit and retains it until the conclusion of trial.
She added that, the defence counsel has not stated the name of the forensic lab, nor its level of expertise and experience of the personnel that will conduct the examination of the device. The EFCC’s counsel also urged the court to nominate the agency’s Director of forensic department to select a lab for the exercise instead.
“In making the order the Court should direct that the examination be conducted in the presence of a person with such vast experience and knowledge to be nominated by the prosecution”.
“Also there must be proper chain of custody to ensure the device isn’t tampered with, and is returned to the court upon conclusion of the exercise”
“The duration of the forensic exercise was also not stated in their application”.
The court adjourned the matter till September 15, 2025 for ruling on the application.
Mr Emefiele and one Henry Omoile, face a 19-count charge filed by the EFCC, on allegations of money laundering and fraud totalling $4.5 billion and ₦2.8 billion. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge.
