By Funso Alarape
December 23, 2023
Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, who has been in the Kuje Correctional Centre, and is being prosecuted for N1.2bn procurement fraud has fulfilled the bail condition as outlined by the court. He left the Kuje prison today after meeting the N300 million bail condition.
Meanwhile, the special investigator into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) operations under the immediate past governor of the apex bank, Jim Obazee, had on Wednesday submitted the report of his investigations into the acquisition of Union Bank and Keystone Bank to President Bola Tinubu in two separate letters dated December 20, 2023.
Onezee had earlier revealed that the immediate past governor of CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele illegally lodged billions of naira in foreign currencies in no fewer than 593 bank accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, and China without the approval of the apex bank’s board of directors and the CBN Investment Committee.
Obazee who was appointed special investigator in July by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu detected that the ex-CBN governor lodged £543,482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone without authorisation.
He had earlier submitted an interim report on the probe of the CBN and related entities on December 9, but last Wednesday Obazee submitted his final report tagged, “Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable Offences)” to the President.
In the report, Emefiele was alleged to have sold banks without payment evidence, lodged £543,482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone without authorization, recommended lenders’ forfeiture to FG, and also approved interest-free loans for cronies.
Emefiele used proxies to acquire Union Bank of Nigeria for Titan Trust Bank Limited, as well as Keystone Bank without any evidence of payment.
As a result, it recommends that the Federal Government should reverse the sale of the banks and also take them over.