The former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, illegally lodged billions of naira in no fewer than 593 bank accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, and 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 governor lodged
£543, 482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone without authorisation.
When contacted, counsel for
Emefiele, Mathew Bukkaa, SAN, asked one of our correspondents to send him a
text message. He has yet to reply to the message as of the time of filing this
report.
Meanwhile, Obaze submitted his
final report tagged, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related
Entities (Chargeable offences) to President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday.
The report partly read, “The
former governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele invested Nigeria’s money without
authorization in 593 foreign bank accounts in United States, China and United Kingdom,
while he was in charge.
“All the accounts where the
billions were lodged have all been traced by the investigator.”
In a letter dated July 28,
2023, sighted by The PUNCH, President Bola Tinubu had named a former Executive
Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Obazee, as the CBN
special investigator
Emefiele, who is currently in
Kuje Custodial Centre, is being prosecuted for N1.2 billion procurement fraud.
He has not been able to perfect
the N300m bail granted him by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on
November 22.
However, documents obtained by
our correspondent on Thursday indicated that the former apex bank governor
might face fresh criminal charges over the handling of the CBN naira redesign
policy.
Emefiele could be prosecuted
for illegal issuance of currency under section 19 of the CBN Act alongside
Tunde Sabiu, a former aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, and 12 top
directors of the CBN.
It was gathered that the naira
redesign policy was sold to Buhari at the instance of Sabiu and that the
initiative was done without the approval of the board of the CBN.
No
approval
The investigator found that Buhari didn’t approve of the naira redesign. It was Tunde Sabiu who first told Emefiele in September 2022 to consider the redesign of the naira. On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure N1000, N500 and N200 notes.
“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,’’ the documents noted.
Emefiele was said to have
contracted the redesign of the naira to De La Rue of the UK for £205, 000
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.
As of August 9, 2023, findings
revealed that N769bn of the new notes were in circulation.
The probe of the CBN also
revealed the fraudulent use of N26.627tn Ways and Means of the Apex Bank as
well as the misuse of the COVID-19 intervention fund.
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 and ratification
by the board of directors the payment of the sum of N250bn only to the Federal
Government of Nigeria to address challenges as a result of low revenue inflow
and the payment of salaries.
The decision was implemented on
December 15, 2020.
Anticipatory
approval
Also on December 30, 2020, the
committee of governors at its 672nd meeting granted another anticipatory
approval for N250bn to the Federal Government for payment of salaries pending
receipt of a formal request by Mr President and ratification by the board of
directors.
The apex bank’s management
through the Finance and General Purpose Committee equally granted anticipatory
approval on the investment of $200mn 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 Federal Government
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.
The document further said, “In
an instance, they (senior CBN and government officials) padded what the former
President Muhammadu 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.
“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.’’
Continuing, the report said,
“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.”
Legal
fees
The CBN under Emefiele was also
said to have spent N1.7bn on questionable legal fees for 19 cases instituted
against the naira redesign policy.
The investigator also
discovered how Emefiele misrepresented the presidential approval for the NESI
Stabilisation Strategy Limited approved by former president Goodluck Jonathan.
The document read, “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.’’
Between 2015 and 2021, an
investment company was said to have collected unlawfully a total of N4.89bn.
A breakdown indicated that the
firm received N262mn in 2015, N464mn in 2016, N550mn in 2017, N726mn in 2018,
N762 in 2019, N684 in 2020 and N1.44bn in 2021, totalling N4.89bn.
Emefiele also allegedly paid
N17.2bn to 14 deposit money banks participating in the Nigerian Electricity
Market Stabilisation Facility.
“A total of 14 DMBs engaged in
the manipulation by unlawfully arranging and collecting 1.9535 per cent of the
total disbursements paid to the DMBs participating in the Nigerian Electricity
Market Stabilisation Facility.
The fees are paid to the banks
in the ratio of their contributions to the NEMSF disbursement, according to
External Auditor’s Notes to the Financial Statement of NESI Stabilisation
Strategy Limited.
“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 said the
money was diverted from public funds,’’ the document further stated.
It was further gathered that
Emefiele could be tried for alleged manipulation of the naira exchange rate,
fraudulent implementation of the e-naira project, and exemption of three foreign
firms from paying income tax.
Meanwhile, the investigation
has uncovered the strange illegal withdrawal/theft of $6.23mn from the CBN
vault by two persons who used a forged presidential letter.
The suspects currently in
custody were said to have presented a forged letter on February 7 and 8, 2023,
purportedly signed by Buhari to withdraw the money allegedly meant for payment
for foreign election observation missions.
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