The Special Investigator probing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Jim Obazee, has discovered 593 bank accounts located in the United States, United Kingdom and China in which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under Godwin Emefiele, kept Nigerian funds without authorisation by the Board and Investment Committee of the bank.
The investigator also discovered how billions of naira were allegedly stolen by Mr Emefiele and other officials 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.
These were contained in Obaze’s final report tagged, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable offences)’ submitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The report partly read, “The former governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, invested Nigeria’s money without authorisation 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.”
The investigation scrutinises the naira redesign policy, suggesting it bypassed proper channels. Documents reveal Emefiele awarded the contract without board approval and potentially misled former President Buhari about the initiative’s scope.
“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 could face charges for illegal currency issuance alongside officials who allegedly influenced the process.
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.
Obaze, in his report, found that N61.5bn was earmarked for the printing of the new notes, out of which N31.79bn had been paid.
Meanwhile, as of August 9, 2023, findings revealed that N769bn of the new notes were in circulation.
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The probe sheds light on the alleged misuse of the CBN’s Ways and Means advances to the Federal Government. The report claims officials inflated approvals, took unauthorised withdrawals, and even created false narratives to conceal discrepancies. This pattern allegedly resulted in over N198 billion unaccounted for.
The document reads, “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.”
The investigators also raise concerns about irregularities in the COVID-19 intervention fund, with specific instances of bypassing formal procedures and potentially diverting funds.
Questionable legal fees incurred during the naira redesign controversy, totalling N1.7 billion for 19 cases, add to the list of alleged irregularities.
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 investigation suggests Emefiele may face additional charges for alleged manipulation of the exchange rate, fraudulent e-naira implementation, and tax exemptions granted to foreign firms.
The investigation also reveals a strange illegal withdrawal/theft of $6.23mn from the CBN vault by two persons who used a forged presidential letter. The suspects who are in custody reportedly 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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