Emefiele Operated 593 Illegal Accounts – CBN Investigator

A final report submitted on December 20 by Jim Obazee, the special investigator appointed by President Bola Tinubu in July, reveals that a presidential panel investigating the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) during former Governor Emefiele Godwin’s tenure has uncovered unauthorized investments of Nigeria’s funds in 593 foreign bank accounts across the United States, China, and the United Kingdom, Aso Naija Reports.

According to the report titled “Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable Offences),” Emefiele, without authorization, lodged £543,482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone.

The report states that during Emefiele’s term as governor of the CBN, Nigeria’s money was invested without proper authorization in 593 foreign bank accounts located in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom.

The investigator was able to trace all the accounts where these billions were deposited.

Furthermore, Obazee recommended that Emefiele, along with certain members of the top management team, should face trial for the alleged illegal transactions and misuse of funds for unauthorized purposes.

Emefiele could potentially be prosecuted for the illegal issuance of currency under section 19 of the CBN Act, alongside Tunde Sabiu, a former aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, and 12 top directors of the CBN.

It has been discovered that the naira redesign policy was proposed to President Buhari at the urging of Sabiu, and this initiative was carried out without the approval of the CBN’s board.

The investigator found that President Buhari did not approve the naira redesign.

It was Tunde Sabiu who initially approached Emefiele in September 2022 regarding the redesign of the naira.

On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to President Buhari expressing his intention to redesign and reconfigure the N1000, N500, and N200 notes.