Disgraced Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele illegally lodged billions of naira in no fewer than 593 bank accounts in the US, UK, & China without the consent of the apex bank’s board of directors and the CBN Investment Committee.
The Special Investigator on the CBN and Related Entities, Jim Obaze, revealed 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.
CBN’s management through the Finance & General Purpose Committee equally granted anticipatory approval on the investment of $200m in equity warrants of the Africa Finance Corporation.
According to section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007, the CBN could grant temporary advances to the FG in respect of temporary deficiency of budget revenue at an interest.
The section also provides that such advances are to be repaid by the end of the financial year in which they are granted otherwise, the CBN shall be stopped from granting such advances in the subsequent year.
The advance is not to be repaid by way of promissory note, securitization or issuance of treasury bills.
The CBN investigator discovered that the CBN Ways and Means was abused under the Buhari administration; In an instance, they (senior CBN and government officials) padded what the former President Buhari approved with N198,963,162, 187. 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. 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.
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.
