Emefiele and the Chief judge in a court room.
Just in a few months after his arrest and subsequent legal trial by the Federal High Court in Abuja, more evidence of criminal charges ranging from illegal possession of firearms to money laundering has continued to surface against Emefiele, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). (2)
Today, on Friday 22 December, new evidence has emerged revealing that Emefiele had syphoned billions of Naira into his 593 foreign bank accounts during the time he served as the CBN governor under the administration of president Muhammadu Buhari.
A report by by Jim Obazee, a special investigator previously apportioned by President Bola Tinubu, confirmed on Friday that Emefiele had illegally, without appropriate authorizations by the CBN Board of directors and Investment committee, moved Billions of Naira into his private accounts in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Emefiele’s fraud trial
The investigator discovered that £543,482,213 was syphoned away by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to his UK fixed deposit account. This is the only confirmed amount in one of the 3 foreign bank accounts operated by Emefiele.
Jim Obazee, who also was Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, submitted
the evidence of his final report on Wednesday to the president quoted, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable offences).
Some details of the report said, “The former governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, invested Nigeria’s money without authorization in 593 foreign bank accounts in the United States, China and the United Kingdom, while he was in charge.
“All the accounts where the billions were lodged have all been traced by the investigator.”
PUNCH reported on 28 July, that the president of the federation, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had appointed Obazee the CBN Special Investigator. (4)
And since his appointment Obazee has continued, in his determination to help the government fight corruption, to work assiduously to bring the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria accountable to the government and Nigerians.
Emefiele, who is presently serving behind bars in Kuje prison, faces charges for N1.2 billion procurement fraud.
He was, however, recently granted bail of N300 million by the FCT High Court. But, Emefiele has yet remained unable to secure the bail.
There are more fresh cases of criminal charges building up against him, especially a new case bearing on his Naira noted redesign policy, according to authorities.
The charges under section 19 Act of the Central Bank of Nigeria on illegal issuance of currency, which may extend his time in prison or revoke his bail and prosecute the former aide to the erstwhile president Muhammadu Buhari and 12 other directors of the Apex Bank.
According to officials, Naira redesign policy was not approved by the former president and was suggested by Sabiu and had gone flat against the Central Bank Board of directors’ test approval.
The investigator, Jim, has confirmed that the former president never approved Emefiele’s Naira not redesign policy. His aide, Tunde Sabiu had mey the former CBN governor on 8 September 2022 to redesign the currency, which the governor wrote to the president that he was going to change the design of N 200, N500 and N1000 notes but the president did not assent to the his application as was required by law.
“The former President tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on December 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc on October 31, 2022,’’ Jim’s documents revealed.
The CBN governor, according to sources, contracted De La Rue, a UK-based printing company with £205,000 by votes of the currency operations department a few weeks after the Nigerian security printing & minting plc (NSPM) said it was constrained by the limited time duration to deliver the service. Emefiele’s fraud trial
The special investigator, Jim said that N61.5bn was budgeted for the new notes printing, but only N31.79 billion was paid to the contractor (NSPM)
Earlier September, authorities said that total new Naira notes in circulation, according to findings from August 9, 2023, is less than N769bn.
Also Jim’s previous reports on the CBN revealed that the Central Bank under the leadership of Emefiele, as the governor, was involved In fraudulent use of N26.627tn during the COVID-19.
Another corrupt practice recorded against the CBN governor, Emefiele, included his application to the president for a debit of N124.860 billion to the Federal Consolidated Revenue Fund Account October 27, 2020, which was approved and implemented October 9 2021.
Emefiele’s lootingThe CBN Act under section 38
A Committee of Governors at its 670thOn December 9, 2020, also granted anticipatory approval of N250bn to the Federal Government of Nigeria to address challenges of low revenue inflow and the payment of salaries “without receipt of a formal request by the President and assessment approval by the CBN board of directors.
The central Bank’s management equally granted anticipatory approval of $200 million investment in equity warrants of the Africa Finance corporation through the Finance and General Purpose committee,which was in line with the CBN Act ,2007 under section 38 where the law permits it to lend short-term money or temporary advances to the Federal Government to make up for midyear budgetary gaps.
The Federal government is required to repay the advances granted by the Central Bank by the end of the financial year, else it will be stopped from receiving further financial advances in the next year as it has proven not credit worthy to CBN.
The conditions of the repayment of the CBN grant to the Federal Government includes not repaying it by securitization, treasury bills or promissory note.
However, the investigator, during his findings noted that the CBN was involved in so many financial misuses and uneconomical behaviour during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jim’s investigation revealed that “there are more shocking instances” of corruption to be recorded under Emefiele’s leadership as the CBN.
“In an instance, they (senior CBN and government officials) padded what the former President Muhammadu Buhari approved with N198,963,162, 187,” a further report on his investigation documents said.
“There are instances where no approvals are received from the former president and yet, N500bn is taken and debited to Ways and Means.
“There are more shocking instances where the erstwhile CBN governor and his four deputy governors connived to steal outright in order to balance the books of the CBN. Emefiele’s looting
“This was by violently taking money from the Consolidated Revenue account and then charging it to Ways and Means. It was a total of N124.860bn. They even created the narration as a presidential subsidy and expanded the ways and Means portfolio to accommodate crime.
News:Emefiele’s looting“The CBN officers and even the then acting CBN governor could not produce the Presidential Approval of most of the expenses described as ‘Ways and Means.’ When confronted, to provide the breakdown of the supposed N22.7trn that was presented to the 9th National Assembly to illegally securitise as ‘Ways and Means’ financing, they were only able to partially explain a total of N9.063 trn or N9.2trn depending on which official you are considering his submission and an unreasonable attribution of non-negotiated interest element of N6.5tn.
“This shows that this was the point where the officers of the immediate past administration as well as the erstwhile CBN governor and his four deputy governors connived, defrauded, and stole from the commonwealth of our country with the aid of civil servants.’’
More details of Jim’s report also stated that,“The true position of the Ways and Means as documented from the reconciliation between the CBN and the Ministry of Finance at the time is N4,449,149,411,584.54.
“This may have been the main reason the past administration hurriedly sought that the advances of N22.7trn be securitised by the 9th National Assembly on December 19, 2022, which they also hurriedly did despite the fact that it contravenes section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007.”
Emefiele’s looting
Emefiele Neglected the due Presidential approval For NESI.
The findings document also said, “The Presidential approval granted by then President Goodluck Jonathan was rightly stated by him NESI should be a company limited by guarantee but the Committee of Governors misled the Board of the CBN by relying on non-existent advice by the office of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to incorporate a company limited by shares for which the allotted share capital exceeded the authorised share capital (See 380th meeting of the Committee of Governors held in January in January 2015) and allotting unauthorised share capital to Mr Godwin Emefiele and Mr Mudashiru Olaitan without lawful approval by the President.
“N1.325bn was stolen pre-incorporation and the money funnelled to four companies, including a legal firm which got N300mn.’’
Emefiele’s looting
An investment firm was illegally paid over N4.88 billion from 2015- 2021 by the CBN governor, “ pending receipt. He also made an unauthorised payment of N17.2bn to about 14 deposit money banks responsible in the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility.
According to the external auditor, these fees are remitted to the banks in the ratio of their contributions to the NEMSF disbursement. News: Emefiele’s fraud trial
“The CBN also went further by authorising the issuance of debenture for the NESI SPV, starting with N64.8bn in 2015. By 2021, N952bn debenture had been issued.”
The investigator’s report confirmed that these payments were the public funds, who knows, maybe to one of those his private accounts offshore. News: Former CBN governor Emefiele
