The documents linked to the $6.230m allegedly stolen from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on 08 February 2023 have posed some insights into how the cash 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, investigators described the theft as an insider’s job, allegedly affected 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’s share.
However, during a hearing in the case, a Deputy Director and Head of the Service Delivery Division of the CBN, Michael Onyeka Ogbu, who oversaw the apex bank’s Abuja branch, where the cash was withdrawn, has since confirmed the withdrawal.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 authorized by the necessary persons. Ogbu recalled that on February 8, 2023, there was a payment request, addressed to the Abuja Branch Controller (which he was at the time). He said: “On that day the request for the payment of $6,230,000 was received in my office by my Office Assistant, who brought it to my attention. When I received the document, I found that it was from the Banking Services Department. The Director, of Banking Services signed the memo, and the content of the memo contained an instruction for the Branch Controller to pay the sum of $6,230,000 to a staff of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, with the identity and the name of the person mentioned.
The memo said the payment was for international election observers and that we should debit an account – Naira Forex Account – with the naira equivalent of $6,230,000. The memo also said that the money will be refunded in the second quarter of 2023 by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
It went on to say ‘Find attached the approval of the governor of the CBN for the payment.’ The attachment had the approval of the governor of the CBN. It also had the approval of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the request letter from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.” Ogbu said that after going through the documents and being satisfied, he minuted it to the Head of the Business Services Unit for processing and payment. On whether the money was eventually released, Ogbu said: “Payment was eventually made.
The $6,230,000 was paid on the 8th of February 2023. The payment was in cash.” In one of the court documents, it was revealed that some of the beneficiaries invested their shares of the loot, estimated at N1.4 billion in real estate, part of which has now been recovered.
