Dec. 22, 2023

The Special Investigator probing the Central Bank of Nigeria, Jim Obazee, says former CBN Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele and others embezzled billions of naira and committed other gross financial offences.

Channels Television reports that according to a report by an online newspaper Premium Times, Obazee’s findings and recommendations were contained in a report he submitted to President Bola Tinubu on December 9, 2023.

The findings include that Emefiele who was in office from June 2014 to June 2023, was engaged “in fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million”, and perpetrated fraud in the redesign of the naira, while Emefiele kept 543.4 million pounds in the United Kingdom.

Premium Times, which obtained a copy of Obazee’s submission to President Tinubu, also reported that Emefiele was found to have manipulated the exchange rate, fraudulently used the Ways and Means to the tune of N26.6tn, launched fraudulent intervention programmes, made fraudulent expenditures on COVID-19, and manipulated presidential approval, among other things.

Consequently, Obazee recommended that Emefiele and others, including his deputy governors, be prosecuted for financial offences.

With regards to the controversial naira redesign, which eventually led to acute naira scarcity and inflicted hardship on millions of Nigerians, Obazee said the process violated the CBN Act.

He was quoted as saying the redesign was neither recommended by the Board of the CBN nor approved by the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, “contrary to the provisions of Section 19 (1) of the CBN Act, 2007.

Premium Times added that Obazee said the naira redesign “was a conspiracy against the Nigerian people and specifically the political class… “It was indeed meant to frustrate the political class and make their election agenda very difficult. It turned out to be a huge punishment to Nigerians and the Nigerian Economy coincidentally.”

The former CBN Governor has been in custody since he was arrested by the DSS in June after his ouster. He is currently being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which has accused him of committing a N1.2bn procurement fraud. That trial had opened on November 29, 2023, days before Mr. Obazee submitted the report of his investigation to Mr. Tinubu.