Probe panel accuses Emefiele, CBN officials of N22.7trn ways and means ‘fraud’

Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been linked to “fraud” involving the ways and means.

Ways and means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls.

Jim Obazee, special investigator probing CBN and related entities, alleged the fraud in the final panel report titled ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable Offences)’, which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday.

Obazee was appointed on July 30, 2023, by Tinubu as a special investigator to probe the activities of CBN under Emefiele.

After a five-month probe, the report said during Emefiele’s tenure, there was “fraudulent” use of Ways and Means advances by the CBN.

The panel said Emefiele and Zainab Ahmed, former finance minister, had jointly signed a statement advising Buhari to restructure the ways and means of N23.71 trillion despite presenting “a different figure to the National Assembly on the same date”.

They presented N22.7 trillion to the national assembly in December 2022.

“It was a surprise, Mr. President, that under the last administration, this noble outlet became a huge source of fraudulent drain pipe for the then Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the erstwhile CBN Governor, all the then four Deputy CBN Governors (under the guise of COG), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation and even the then Chief of Staff,” the panel said.

Commenting further on the handling of the ways and means during Emefiele’s tenure, the panel gave an instance of them padding N901,036,937,813 approved by Buhari with N198,963,162,187 — thereby increasing the amount to N1 trillion.

The findings by the panel showed that as of June 8, 2023, ways and means stood at N26.62 trillion.

“The fact that the balance of the “Ways and Means” was documented as N26.627 trillion as at 8th June 2023 by the erstwhile CBN Governor shows an unrepentant attitude of the management of the CBN because they continued to carry the “Temporary Advances to the Federal Government” as a running current account despite the obvious contravention of Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007 to which they swore to uphold,” the probe report said.

“Accordingly, our conclusion is that the officers named above are complicit in the entire criminal act and fraudulent enrichment. officials of the immediate past administration  that are involved in the malteasance should be prosecuted.”

The panel advised Tinubu to approach the court to nullify the approval that the 9th National Assembly gave to securitise the ways and means as it contravenes Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007.

‘UNAPPROVED NAIRA REDESIGN GULPED N31.79BN’

According to the document, Emefiele is likely to be charged for illegal issuance of currency under section 19 of the CBN Act alongside Tunde Sabiu, a former aide to Buhari, and 12 top directors of the CBN.

The panel said the naira redesign plan was not approved by Buhari as required by Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007.

According to the document, Buhari did not consult with the management of the CBN nor seek any recommendation from the board of the apex bank as required by the CBN Act, 2007.

In the panel report, naira redesign was first suggested by Ahmed Umar, immediate past director of currency, CBN, on August 25, 2022.

Umar received the support of Folashodun Shonubi, CBN deputy governor, operations, who was his supervisor at the time, to write a memorandum to the apex bank’s committee of governors.

Sabiu later suggested the naira redesign idea to Emefiele in September last year, telling him to consider it.

On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure N1000, N500 and N200 notes.

it was revealed that Emefiele offered the contract of the naira redesign to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM) on October 31, 2022 — however, NSPM said it could not deliver the contract within a short timeframe.

Consequently, Emefiele “singlehandedly” contracted the redesign of the naira to De La Rue, a company based in the UK, for “GBP 205,000 under the vote of the head of Currency Operations Department supervised by Folashodun Sonubi in CBN”.

The panel said NSPM advised Emefiele to consider redesigning the redesign, but the former CBN governor did not go back to Buhari for approval of the new redesign nor seek the recommendation of the bank’s board.

According to the report, as of August 9, 2023, N769.562 billion of the “illegal Naira” is in circulation.

It further said the redesigned naira in circulation cost the government N61.54 billion, but only N31.79 billion has been paid.

The naira redesign had caused havoc and chaos across the country during the transition from old to new banknotes.