How Emefiele, Others, Allegedly Kept 593 Foreign Accounts

How Emefiele

OpenLife Nigeria reports that barely five months after the investigation, Jim Obazee, the special investigator probing the Central Bank of Nigeria, has discovered 593 bank accounts located in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and China where the embattled ex-CBN governor, Godwin, kept Nigerian funds without authorization the Board and Investment Committee of the bank, other gory revelation about Emefiele.

The investigator also discovered how Mr Emefiele and other officials allegedly stole billions of naira from the CBN’s accounts, including a “fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million” – about N2.9 billion at the then official exchange rate of N461 to a dollar.

Accordingly, in the UK alone, the Special Investigator said his probe led him to 543.4 million Pounds kept by Mr Emefiele in fixed deposit accounts. He also said Mr Emefiele manipulated the Naira exchange rate and perpetrated fraud in the CBN’s e-Naira project.

The report added that Emefiele paid $6.23 million for foreign election observation missions in February under ‘Presidential directive’.

Mr Obazee disclosed these in his report submitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on December 9 2023, where he recommended the prosecution of Mr Emefiele and at least 13 other individuals, including his deputy governors, for alleged gross financial offences.

Specifically, the report the Naira redesign policy kick-started by Emefiele in October, CBN printed the new N200, N500 and N1000 notes at a total cost of N61.5 billion, out of which it has paid N31.8 billion to the contractor, even though the total value of the new banknotes in circulation as of August was only N769,562 billion.

“The sum of N1,727,500,000 was also spent on questionable legal fees on 19 cases that are directly traceable to the Naira Redesign and reconfiguration agenda,” Mr Obazee said in the report.

“It was indeed meant to frustrate the political class and make their election agenda very difficult. It was a huge punishment to Nigerians and the Nigerian Economy coincidentally.”

Mr Obazee said the CBN printed the new N200, N500 and N1000 notes at a total cost of N61.5 billion, out of which it has paid N31.8 billion to the contractor, even though the total value of the new notes in circulation as of August was only N769,562 billion.

“The sum of N1,727,500,000 was also spent on questionable legal fees on 19 cases that are directly traceable to the Naira Redesign and reconfiguration agenda,” Mr Obazee said in the report.

The report also indicted Emefiele on Ways and Means advance to the Federal Government.

On the “fraudulent use of “Ways and Means”, he reported:
“Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007 allows the CBN to grant temporary advances to the Federal Government regarding temporary deficiency of budget revenue at an interest. This is what is commonly referred to as “Ways and Means”.

“It was a surprise, Mr President, that under the last administration, the noble outlet became a huge source of fraudulent drain pipe for the then Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the erstwhile CBN Governor, all the four deputy CBN Governors (under the guise of COG), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation and even the then Chief of Staff, In an instance, they padded what the former President Muhammadu Buhari approved with N198,963,162,187 (approximating an approval of N801,036,937,813 to N1 trillion).

There are instances where no approvals are received from former President Muhammadu Buhari, yet N500 billion is taken and debited to Ways and Means.

“There are more shocking instances when the erstwhile CBN Governor and his four deputy Governors connived to steal outrightly to balance the CBN books. This was by violently taking (sic) money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account and then charging it to “Ways and Means,” They even created the narration as a Presidential subsidy and expanded the “Ways and Means” portfolio to accommodate the 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 N22,719,703,774,306.90 that was presented to the 9th National Assembly to securitize the “Ways and Means” financing illegally; they were only able to partially explain a total of N9,063,286,720,318.92 or N9,258,040,720,318.92 (depending on which official you are considering his submission) and an unreasonable attribution of non-negotiated/unadvised interest element of N6,678,874,321,541,97.

According to the report, “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.”

The Special Investigator also reported his discovery of the theft of $6.23 million from the vault of the CBN between 7 and 8 February this year, about two weeks before the presidential and National Assembly polls, under a purported approval of the president for the release of money to pay foreign election observers.

The removal of the money from the vault of the Foreign Payment Office, Abuja Branch, of the CBN, which was captured on CCTV footage, followed a trail of letters which began with one dated January 23 2023, with the caption “Presidential Directive on Foreign Election Observer Missions” (sic).

The persons indicted in the report could not be reached as of the time of filing this report. However, a presidential media aide confirmed that Obazee had submitted the information to President Tinubu.

Recall that on July 28, President Bola Ahmed appointed Obazee to probe CBN after the suspension of Emefiele, who presided over the apex from June 4, 2014, to June 9 2023.

Emefiele is currently in prison for failing to meet bail conditions after Justice Hamza Muazu had on November 22 granted him bail over N1.2 billion procurement charges.