Emefiele pleads not guilty to foreign exchange infractions

[FILE] Former governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank Godwin Emefiele (R) appears at the Federal Capital Territory High Court over allegations of breach of procurement act and financial fraud in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 17, 2023. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON / AFP)

Former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele has pleaded not guilty to new charges of foreign exchange violations brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission.

In the suit filed at a Lagos high court, EFCC alleged that Emefiele arbitrarily allocated foreign exchange of about $2 billion without bids and due process.

According to EFCC, the fresh 26-count charge filed against Emefiele border on accepting gratification, accepting gifts through agents, corruption, receipt of property fraudulently obtained, and conferring corrupt advantage on his associates.

Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN) filed the charge sheet, marked ID/23787c/2024, and dated April 3, 2024, with the anti-graft commission alleging that Emefiele was found culpable of abusing his office between 2022 and 2023 in Lagos.

“You, Godwin Emefiele directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act, to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $2,136,391,737.33 without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians,” the charge read.

“Emefiele, between 2020 and 2021, in Lagos, directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary, act to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $291,945,785.59, without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”

The troubled former CBN governor was further alleged to have, in 2021, in Lagos, “directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act, to wit: special allocation of foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $1,769,254,793.16, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians”.

According to the charge, Emefiele’s co-defendant was alleged to have received an amount of $110,000 for the former CBN boss as a reward for allocating foreign exchange in November 2020.

It was highlighted in the charge that the offences Emefiele and his co-defendant committed contravened Section 73 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

Before EFCC filed the new 26-count charge against Emefiele, the former CBN chief was facing a 20-count amended charge bordering on alleged criminal breach of trust, forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, procurement fraud and conspiracy to commit a felony.