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•Recommends prosecution of culprits
•Says N9.1bn spent on eNaira without presidential approval
•Wants new notes withdrawn from circulation
The Jim Obazee-led special investigative panel that probed the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said it uncovered a missing N17.369 trillion out of the N26.627 trillion Ways and Means advances approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The panel said the money disappeared from the national vault and could not be accounted for to date.
This was contained in its report submitted to President Bola Tinubu last week.
He recalled that Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007 allows the CBN to grant temporary advances (Ways and Means) to the Federal Government in respect of temporary deficiency of budget revenue at an interest.
However, the said Section also provides that such an advance is to be repaid by the end of the financial year in which it was granted, otherwise, the CBN shall be stopped from granting such advances in subsequent years.
“The advance is never to be repaid by way of promissory note, securitisation nor issuance of treasury bills; etc.
“It was a surprise, Mr. President, that under the last administration, this noble outlet became a huge source of fraudulent drainpipe for the then Minster of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, erstwhile CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, 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.
“In an instance, they padded what the former President Mohammadu Buhari, approved with N198,963,162,187 (approximating an approval of N801,036,937,813 to N1 trillion).
“Surprisingly, the erstwhile CBN Governor and the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, had on the same December 19th, 2022, jointly signed an advice to the former President Mohammadu Buhari to restructure Ways and Means advances of N23,719,703,774,306.90 despite presenting a different figure to the National Assembly on the same date.
“The fact that the balance of the Ways and Means was documented as N26.627 trillion as at June 8th, 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 Supreme Court should be approached to nullify the approval that the 9th National Assembly gave to securitise the Ways and Means of N22,71 9,703,774,306.90 as it contravenes Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007.
“Officials of the immediate past administration that are involved in the malfeasance should be prosecuted”, the report revealed.
On the e-naira project, the panel’s report said it did not secure the presidential nod before it took off, contrary to Section 19 of the CBN Act 2007. On demand for the approval, the CBN provided a google link that shows a statement credited to Mr. President during the official launch in October 2021 as approval.
“Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) was projected and provided for in the CBN budgets as follows: N1,065,884,000 for 2021, N3,767,440,000 for 2022 and N4.312,311,000 for 2023, totalling N9,145,635,000.
“However, the CBN, during these periods, expended N11,127,220,094.48 as project costs with a huge difference of N1,981,585,094 which did not pass through the normal budgetary processes.
“The Board of Directors (BOD) ratified the payment of $8,761,250 for the project in May 2023. This approval has no relationship with the budgetary fligures for the current year, which is inconsistent with standard procedures that require prior approval. It therefore means that what the Board approved for the project for year 2023 was far more than what was budgeted (N4,312,311,000).
“Based on the agreement CBN entered with Bitt Inc., the following costs will still be paid annually by the Bank which places a heavy burden on the nation in the long run: annual subscription-$2,408,400.
“This license would cover application suites for 23 and a maximum of 32 financial institutions, usage fee charged at the rate of 0.0875 per cent per transaction subject to a cap of $20,000,000 worth of transactions per month”.
Obazee, in his report, also declared the naira redesign project illegal and should immediately be withdrawn from circulation judging by the fraudulent intent, purpose and dark path trod by the erstwhile CBN management to bring it to fruition.
The panel’s report explained that Emefiele ditched the advice of the then Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Plc to abort the mission to redesign the naira notes as it was impromptu and unnecessary.
The panel noted that Emefiele called his bluff, went ahead to carry out the project and hoodwinked former President Buhari to tag along.
The special investigator found that N61.5 billion was earmarked for the printing of the new notes out of which N31.79 billion had been paid. As at August 9, 2023, findings revealed that N769 billion of the new notes were in circulation.
The report noted with shock that it was one of the presidential aides, Mr. Tunde Sabiu, that told Emefiele to consider redesigning the naira.
Eventually, former President Muhammadu Buhari approved Emefiele’s request and directed that he redesigns and reconfigures the four denominations of the naira notes as prayed but, should print them locally.
Mr. Emefiele, the report noted, contracted De La Rue, United Kingdom to redesign the currency to which the company was paid GBP 205,000 under the vote head of Currency Operations Department supervised by Mr. Folashodun Sonubi in CBN.
“The new redesigns came as just change in colours for the N1,000, N500 and N200 notes to which Mr. Emefiele single handedly approved on 19th October 2022 and contracted the MINT to carry out the printing on 30th October 2022.
“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”.
“Persons to be charged under this are: Mr.Godwin Emefiele, Mr. Folashodun Sonubi, Mr. Edward Adamu, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, Mrs Aishah Ahmad, Mr. Adeola Adetunji, Mr. Idris Ahmed, Prof. Justitia Nnabuko, Prof. Mike Obadan, Prof. Ummu Jalingo, Dr. Abdu Abubakar, Mr. Aliyu Ahmed, Mr. Ahmed Umar and Tunde Sabiu (Mr. Godwin Emefiele and 13 others).
“Accordingly the redesigned naira is illegal should be withdrawn from circulation with immediate-effect”, the report noted.
