THE NATION
Documents have shown how the $6,230,000 cash allegedly stolen from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on February 8, 2023 was shared.
A special presidential investigative team, led by Jim Obaze, that probed the tenure of the immediate past CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had claimed that the $6.2 million was removed from the apex bank’s vault under the guise of paying election observers.
In the court documents, sighted by The Nation, investigators described the theft as an insider’s job, allegedly effected by mainly, CBN officials with the connivance of two outsiders, identified as Adamu Abubakar and Imam Abubakar.
In the documents, investigators claimed that a personal assistant to Emefiele, while being the CBN Governor, – Odoh Eric Ocheme – allegedly got $3,730,000 from the money, while the remaining $2,500,000 was shared by three others.
Ocheme was alleged to have claimed he needed to settle other interests within the apex bank, which informed why he got the lion share.
Emefiele is accused of complicity in the theft in a 20-count amended charge filed against him before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), allegation he has since denied by pleading not guilty to the charge.
However, during a hearing in the case, a Deputy Director and Head of the Service Delivery Division of the CBN, Michael Onyeka Ogbu, who was in charge of the apex bank’s Abuja branch, where the cash was withdrawn, has since confirmed the withdrawal.
Testifying in the case on February 12, Ogbu said he allowed the payment on being convinced that it was authorised by the necessary persons.
Ogbu recalled that on February 8, 2023 there was a request for payment, addressed to the Abuja Branch Controller (which he was at the time).
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