The trial of Godwin Emefiele, the immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), emcontinued on Tuesday, with a former Director of Operations at the apex bank, Ahmed Umar, telling the court that Emefiele’s naira redesign, which began in late 2022, did not receive approval from the Committee of Governors.
On May 15, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Emefiele before Justice Maryanne Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court with alleged unauthorised redesign and printing of the new naira notes.
In charge of CR/264/2024, the EFCC claimed that Emefiele implemented the naira redesign scheme without the permission of the CBN Board and ex-president Muhammadu Buhari.
The anti-graft agency stated that without the consent of the CBN Board and President Muhammadu Buhari, Emefiele spent N18.96 billion for the printing and exchange of new naira notes worth N684.5 million.
It was alleged that Emefiele, “knowingly disobeying the direction of Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007,” approved “the printing of N375,520,000.00 pieces of colour swapped N1,000 notes at the total cost of N11,052, 068,062 without the recommendation of the Board of Central Bank and the strict approval of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, among other things.”
The EFCC presented its first witness, ex-CBN Director of Operations Umar, during the trial’s commencement on Tuesday. Led in testimony by EFCC prosecutor Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), Umar told the court that in 2022, his department was asked to create a new design for the naira.
“The CBN management asked my department to prepare a document on the design of the naira note by August 2022.
“We prepared the bill with the Committee of Governors and passed it through the line of Deputy Governor Operations, which he forwarded to the Governor, and it was listed for consideration by the Committee of Governors.”
The ex-director, who told the court he joined the CBN 35 years ago and will retire in July 2023, stated that the Committee of Governors was made up of five members, with the CBN Governor serving as chairman.
The witness told the court that the naira redesign memo was brought to the Committee of Governors for consideration or review on October 26, 2022, but it was not approved.
Umar said, “We humbly requested the implementation of the amendment. But the extract from the COG did not approve items one and three.
While item two was modified to include the N200 denomination, the proposal for the exercise in 2023 wasn’t approved by the COG.
“The procedure requires the Board of Directors to recommend to the President the design and form.
“The design shall be contained in the currency after the approval of the President, and then the production of the currency will commence.”
Justice Anenih admitted the Certified True Copy of the Operations Department’s memorandum as Exhibit A.
The EFCC accused Emefiele of spending N4.4 billion to create “coloured swapped N500 notes.”
According to the EFCC, Emefiele spent N3.4 billion on printing “137,070 pieces of coloured N200 notes.”
According to the EFCC, Emefiele committed the accused acts between October 2022 and March 2023 in Abuja, in clear contravention of Section 19 of the CBN Act.
The EFCC said that Emefiele violated the law with the purpose of harming the public when he introduced the naira swap programme.
Emefiele was also accused of improperly allowing the removal of N124.8 billion from the Federation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund.
However, the former chief executive of the bank disputed all of the claims and pleaded not guilty.
