‘Abuse of office’: Emefiele arraigned on fresh charges in Lagos

Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has pleaded not guilty to a 26-count charge bordering on abuse of office.

Emefiele was arraigned on Monday by the federal government alongside his co-defendant, Henry Omole, before Rahmon Oshodi, a judge at the Ikeja high court.

The two defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

On the first count, the former CBN governor was accused of abuse of office between 2022 and 2023, in Lagos, an offence punishable under “Section 73 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011”.

Emefiele was also accused of arbitrarily allocating foreign exchange in the “aggregate sum of $2,136,391,737.33 without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians”.

In the second count, the federal government alleged that between 2020 and 2021, Emefiele “directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $291,945,785.59, without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians”.

In the third count, Emefiele was accused of arbitrarily “allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $1,769,254,793.16, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians”.

Emefiele’s co-defendant was accused of accepting the sum of $110,000 on behalf of the former CBN governor as “reward for allocating foreign exchange by the Central Bank in favour of Raja Punjab’s employer”.