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From Godwin Tsa Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday opened the criminal trial of the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and former Aviation Minister, Hadi Abubakar Sirika.
Emefiele was, on May 15, arraigned before Justice Maryanne Anenih on a four-count charge filed by the EFCC.
The prosecution had in the charge, marked: CR/264/2024, accused Emefiele of, among other things, approving the printing of new Naira notes between October 2022, and March 2023, without recourse to due process of law.
The former CBN boss was further accused of approving the withdrawal of N124,860,227,865.16 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation in a manner not prescribed by the National Assembly.
According to the prosecution, the alleged offences were contrary to, and punishable under Section 123 of the Penal Code Law, Cap. 89 Laws of the Federation, 1990.
In the other trial, Sirika and his brother, Ahmad Abubakar Sirika, a staff of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, are facing a 10-count charge of contract fraud in respect of which they were arraigned on May 23 before Justice Suleiman Belgore.
They were arraigned with two companies, Enginos Nigeria Limited, and Samahah Integrated Investments Limited.
In the charge marked: FCT/HC/CR/347/2024, the EFCC accused Sirika of awarding three contracts, valued at about N5,772,279,460.00 to a company, Enginos Nigeria Limited, owned by his brother, Ahmad.
In the case of Emefiele, the prosecution called its first witness, Ahmed Bello Umar, who said he retired in July last year as the Director of Currency Operations at the CBN.
Led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), Umar said he knew the defendant as the Governor of the CBN, while he served as the Director, Currency Operations.
Oyedepo explained that the management of the CBN comprised two major structures, the Committee of Governors (COG), and the Board of Directors (BOD).
Umar further explained that the COD is made up of five members, which include the Governor as Chairman, and the four Deputy Governors of the bank as members.
The prosecution witness said the BOD is made up of 12 members, which include the Governor, the four Deputy Governors, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGoF) and five external members appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The witness said the BOD is the highest decision-making body of the CBN, while the COG takes care of operational matters as they relate to the day-to-day running of the bank.
Umar recalled that sometime in August 2022, the management of the CBN directed his department to come up with a memo on the redesign of the Naira notes.
“We prepared the memo for the consideration of the COG and passed it through the line Deputy Governor, that is Deputy Governor, Operations, which he forwarded to the Governor,” he said
The witness added that the COG deliberated on the memo until October 26, 2022, when its directions and approvals were forwarded to his department.
He said after the meeting of the COGs on October 26, the Corporate Secretariat Department conveyed anticipatory approval from the COGs, pending ratification by the BODs.
The witness said the COG did not approve all the requests as contained in the memo prepared by his department, adding that while some were rejected, some were modified.
“The proposal for the exercise to take place in 2023 was not accepted by the COG. The memo was referred for the consideration of the BOD and it was so considered by the BODs on December 15, 2022,” he said.
