EFCC to arraign six CBN chiefs, others over alleged N8b fraud

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) said yesterday that it has concluded plans to arraign six top executives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over their alleged role in an N8 billion scam involving the theft and recirculation of defaced and mutilated currencies.

EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said in a statement yesterday that the suspects are drawn from various business units of the apex bank and will be docked before a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, from tomorrow to Thursday ,June 4.

He gave the names of the suspects to include; Patience Okoro Eye( Abuja) , Afolabi Olufemi( Lagos), Kolawole Babalola( Ibadan), Olaniran Muniru Adeola(Ibadan), Fatai Yusuf, Adekunle( Head, Security, CBN, (Ibadan) and Ilori Adekunle Sunday(Akure).

“The remaining 16 suspects are drawn from various commercial banks who were found to have conspired with the CBN executives to commit the crime.

All the suspects who are currently in the custody of the EFCC are now lamenting the day they literally allowed greed and craze for materialism to becloud their sense of judgment and responsibility, when they elected to help themselves to tones of defaced Naira notes.

Instead of carrying out the statutory instruction to destroy the currency, they substituted it with newspapers neatly cut to Naira sizes and proceeded to recycle the defaced and mutilated currency,” Uwujaren said.

Information from the EFCC indicate that similar crimes over the years have been responsible for the failure of government monetary policy as currency mop up exercises by the apex bank failed to check the inflationary pressure on the economy.

“The lid on the scam which is widely suspected to have gone on unchecked for years, was blown on November 3, 2014 via a petition to the EFCC alleging that over N6.5 billion was cornered and discreetly recycled by some top executives of the CBN at the Ibadan branch.

The suspects, who were members of the briquetting panel, plotted their way to infamy on September 8, 2014, while carrying out a briquetting exercise at the CBN Branch, Ibadan. In banking parlance, briquetting is disintegration and destruction of counted and audited dirty notes.

By this practice, depositor banks usually take mutilated notes to the CBN in exchange for fresh notes equivalent of the amount deposited. But while carrying out the assignment, the team was alleged to have found one of the currency boxes filled only with old newspapers rather than 20 bundles of N1000 notes.

A similar case, according to investigation, was discovered on September 22, 2014 when a box that was supposed to contain N500 notes to the tune of N5billion was filled with old newspapers.

Unlike in the past, this fraud could not be swept under the carpet, as a member of the briquetting panel from the Osogbo branch blew the lid on the illicit deal. In a petition , the informant stated that the exercise was designed to last between August 4 and 8, 2014.

The 35-year-old petitioner however, stated that she discovered a strange ‘sight’ while opening the third box on the second day of the exercise. It was a discovery that beat her ken. She added that she confronted the other members of the panel, including Eye, Head, briquetting panel; Treasury Assistant; Coordinator and Head, Security, CBN, Ibadan, who all assured her that they would look into it.

“But she later found out that it was all a ruse. She said she later found out that Eye not only maintained sealed lips over the matter but omitted it from her report”, Uwujaren stated, adding that the suspects would be arraigned on a five count charge before the court.