Bawa: EFCC will question some persons over return of old naira notes to banks

Abdulrasheed Bawa, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says the agency will question some persons over the return of the old naira notes to banks.

Speaking on Wednesday in an interview on Channels Television, Bawa said the anti-graft agency has not questioned anyone since the commencement of the naira redesign policy.

On October 26, 2022, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),  announced the plan to redesign the biggest denominations of the country’s currency — N200, N500, and N1000.

Emefiele had asked Nigerians to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023, when they would cease to be legal tender.

The January 31, 2023 deadline sparked controversies as Nigerians could not access new notes.

The deadline was extended to February 10 amid controversy over the non-availability of new naira notes.

Owing to the policy, many Nigerians deposited their old naira notes with commercial banks.

The EFCC chairman said over N500 billion of the old naira notes are yet to be returned to the apex bank.

“I don’t want to say governors but public servants, not necessarily governors, some businessmen with questionable character, are still having these funds (old naira notes),” Bawa said.

“As the law says, at any time, they can always bring it back to the Central Bank for crediting of their own accounts.

“Throughout this exercise from October 26 till date, we have not arrested anybody. We have not raised any question regarding who deposited what, where, and how because we are determined not to cause too much panic within the system.

“Because one of the cardinal objectives of this policy is to ensure that money returns to the banking system. That is why we are holding on.

“We are not eager to start that. Facts cannot change for things that are already within financial institutions.

“Certainly, we will wait and see. I can tell you that based on our own paper analysis of things, there are a lot of questions we will ask and demand answers for.”