Godwin Emefiele illegally lodged billions of naira in no fewer than 593 bank accounts in the US, UK, & China without the approval of the apex bank’s board of directors and the CBN Investment Committee.
The Special Investigator on the CBN and Related Entities, Jim Obaze, found that the ex-CBN Gov lodged £543, 482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone without authorisation.
Documents obtained indicated that the former apex bank governor might face fresh criminal charges over the handling of the CBN naira redesign policy.
Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on Dec 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to the Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Plc on October 31, 2022.
Emefiele was said to have contracted the redesign of the naira to De La Rue of the UK for £205k pounds under the vote head of the Currency Operations Department after the NSPM said it could not deliver the contract within a short timeframe.
The special investigator found that N61.5bn was earmarked for the printing of the new notes out of which N31.79bn had been paid.
CBN’s fraudulent use of N26.627tn Ways and Means of the Apex Bank as well as the misuse of the COVID-19 intervention fund was also revealed.
For instance, the CBN under Emefiele at its 661st meeting held on October 27, 2020, approved that the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account should be debited with the sum of N124.860bn, and the decision was implemented on October 9.
Similarly, the Committee of Governors at its 670th meeting held on December 9, 2020, granted anticipatory approval ‘’pending receipt of a formal request by Mr President & ratification by the board of directors the payment of the sum of N250bn only to the FG of Nigeria to address challenges as a result of low revenue inflow and the payment of salaries. The decision was implemented on Dec 15, 2020.
