The Special Investigator, Jim Obazee appointed by President Bola Tinubu to investigate the activities of Godwin Emefiele as the governor of the apex bank has revealed how former cabinet secretary Boss Mustapha conived with Emefiele to steal $6.2 million cash from CBN vault in a CCTV footage.
Obazee said President Bola Tinubu should authorised prosecution of former cabinet secretary Boss Mustapha and ex-central bank chief Godwin Emefiele for their roles in the removal of $6.23 million cash from the bank’s cellar in Abuja.
Those recommended for trial include directors, Deputy Directors, Assistant Director and Branch Controllers of the CBN.
The alleged theft, said to have taken place on February 8, 2023, roughly two weeks ahead of the February 25 presidential election, was listed among a laundry of alleged corrupt diversion of public money linked to Mr Emefiele and other officials of the Buhari administration.
Narrating the heist to President Tinubu in an undated memorandum believed to have reached the president on December 20, 2023, Mr Obazee said it was around February 7-8, 2023, that his investigators discovered that “$6.23 million was unlawfully removed from the vault cash from the foreign payments office, Abuja branch, of the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
“The physical acts of unlawful removal of this amount were captured on the CCTV footage and preserved,” Mr Obazee added.
Mr Obazee said efforts to st£al the cash commenced on January 26 when Mr Mustapha sent a memo to Mr Emefiele requesting $6.23 million in cash.
The memo itself followed a precious one dated January 23 from Mr Buhari to Mr Mustapha, which carried the header: “Presidential Directive on Foreign Election Observer Missions.”
The investigator held the unreported transaction as part of an elaborate conspiracy to cover up wrongdoing by the previous regime at the CBN.
“A fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million perpetrated since February 8, 2023, was not discovered nor taken seriously until December 4, 2023, when a request for information was issued by the officer of the special investigator,” Mr Obazee said, adding that there was “an appearance of concealment” by CBN directors and departmental heads, including Ogbu Onyeka, Samuel Chukwuyem Okojere, Elizabeth Fasoranti.
Consequently, Mr Obazee said Messrs Mustapha, Emefiele and those listed above, among others, should be charged for forgery, concealment, stealing, conspiracy and fraud.
Mr Obazee said his investigation into CBN’s actions under Mr Emefiele would continue. He did not immediately recommend charges against Mr Buhari himself, although it was unclear if future evidence would compel him to bring charges against the former president, which would be the first in Nigerian history.
