January 22, 2025
Emefiele

Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele gives a press conference on the naira devaluation during a media briefing in Abuja on June 15, 2016. Nigeria's central bank said today it will ease currency controls and allow the naira to devalue as the country works to attract investment amid a worsening economic outlook. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele said in a televised speech from Abuja that the currency market will be "purely market driven". / AFP / PHILIP OJISUA (Photo credit should read PHILIP OJISUA/AFP/Getty Images)

By Obianuju Uzukwu

There seems to be more trouble coming the way of detained former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, as an independent investigator by the Central Bank of Nigeria have uncovered 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 authorization.

Counsel for Emefiele, Mathew Bukkaa, SAN, who was reached to confirm the report is yet to reply to the message as of the time of filing this report., according to The Punch correspondent.

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, 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.

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.

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