Following the discovery of 593 illegal US, UK, and China accounts operated by the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele and allies, the spokesperson for the Kuje Correctional Centre, FCT, Adamu Duza, Kuje, confirmed that the embattled governor has been released from the facility upon meeting his bail conditions on Friday.
“I can confirm to you that he (Emefiele) has met his bail conditions, hence he has no reason to remain in our facility.
“He met his bail condition and was released past 2pm yesterday (Friday),” Duza told journalists on Saturday.
This development comes after a Special Investigator probing the apex bank, Jim Obazee, in his final report tagged, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable offences) submitted to President Bola Tinubu, on December 9 2023, indicated that Emefiele also illegally lodged billions of naira in no fewer than 593 bank accounts in the United States, and China including the United Kingdom without the approval of the apex bank’s board of directors and the CBN Investment Committee.
The report read partly: “The former governor of the CBN invested Nigeria’s money without authorisation in 593 foreign accounts in the United States, China and the United Kingdom while he was in charge.
“All the accounts where the billions were lodged have all been traced by the investigator, In the UK alone, Emefiele kept £543,482, 213 in fixed deposits without authorization by the CBN board and the Investment Committee of the bank.”
Obazee said the CBN also printed the new N200, N500 and N1000 notes at a total cost of N61.5 billion, out of which it has paid N31.8 billion to the contractor, even though the total value of the new notes in circulation as of August was only N769,562 billion.
“The sum of N1,727,500,000 was also spent on questionable legal fees on 19 cases that are directly traceable to the Naira Redesign and reconfiguration agenda,” Obazee said in the report.
It would be recalled that Tinubu had on 28 July appointed Mr Obazee as a Special Investigator to investigate the CBN and related entities, charging him to set up a suitably experienced and competent team and to work with relevant security and anti-corruption agencies for the assignment.
Tinubu said the appointment relied on the fundamental objective outlined in Section 15(5) of the Nigerian constitution and was in furtherance of the country’s anti-corruption fight.
The president had also directed Obazee, who was the chief executive officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) between 2011 and 2017, to take immediate steps to ensure the strengthening and probity of key Government Business Entities (GBEs) and block leakages in the CBN and related GBEs.
He also directed him to provide a comprehensive report on public wealth currently in the hands of corrupt individuals and establishments (whether private or public).
According to the report of the Special Investigator, the highly controversial redesign of the Naira in October 2022 “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.
