Senate President, Godswill Akpabio said the government is uncertain about the crime to charges against former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele.
Akpabio made this remark during a Thanksgiving service in Rivers State on Sunday.
He acknowledged the weak economy inherited by the current administration and attributed it, in part, to policies implemented by Emefiele.
Akpabio stated that the government is unsure of what charges to file against Emefiele, citing options ranging from “putting foam on top of the bill” to “illegal possession of firearm” and “printing notes without income.”
“So, the kind of debt and economic mess that we are in, a lot of people will not understand but I remember President Obama saying that you cannot know Washington until you get to Washington,” Akpabio said.
“So, by the time we went in to look at the economic situation of the country, it was terrible. You know that the former governor of the central bank, we did not even know what to charge him with.
“Whether to charge him for putting foam on top of the bill or to charge him for illegal possession of firearm or to charge him for printing notes without income, I don’t know what we are going to charge him with.”
Akpabio, however, appealed for patience, arguing that the “rots” accumulated over 60 years cannot be fixed in six months.
“Yes, there is insecurity, we are battling to ensure that Nigerians can take three square meals a day. But be rest assured that we campaigned for this job, we campaigned around the country, we will not let you down, we will get to the bottom of it, all we need is your patience.” he added
Under Emefiele, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) implemented controversial policies such as multiple exchange rates that allowed for round-trips in the face of rising inflation.
One of the policies implemented by the CBN under Emefiele’s watch was the controversial naira redesign policy launched by the previous administration under President Buhari.
Following their implementation, the new notes became extremely scarce, disrupting business activities throughout Nigeria.
When President Bola Tinubu resumed office, he suspended Emefiele from office, and he was arrested by Nigeria’s secret police, the State Security Service (SSS).
Currently, the former CBN governor is charged with amended 20 counts of criminal conspiracy, conferring undue advantage, and breach of trust, among other allegations contained in the report of special investigators appointed by President Tinubu to investigate the CBN’s activities during his tenure as governor.
Jim Obazee, the special investigator, mentioned the $6.23 million payment in his report, which was widely publicised last December.
He described a “fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million,” which equated to approximately N2.9 billion at the then-official exchange rate of N461 per dollar.
Obaeze stated that the $6.23 million was removed from the CBN’s vault between February 7 and 8, 2023, approximately two weeks before the presidential and National Assembly elections, in accordance with the president’s purported approval for the release of funds to pay foreign election observers.
The removal of the money from the vault of the Foreign Payment Office, Abuja Branch, of the CBN, which was captured on CCTV footage, followed a trail of letters that began with one dated January 23, 2023.
The cash withdrawal purportedly meant for an election observation mission for the 2023 general elections had Messrs Buhari and Boss Mustapha, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), authorization.
However, Mustapha, during trial, claimed Buhari’s signature was forged to approve a $6.2 million cash withdrawal from the CBN’s vault.
