There are indications that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may on April 7, arraign six officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and 16 other bankers for the offence of economic sabotage.
Their alleged offence is specifically the theft and re-cycling of defaced/mutilated currency notes,
The EFCC has concluded plans to arraign the six top executives of the CBN and 16 other bankers working with commercial banks, following their implication in the mega scam involving the theft and re-circulation of defaced and mutilated currencies.
Sources said in the course of investigating the alleged scam, the team reportedly found one of the currency boxes filled with old newspapers rather than 20 bundles of N1000 notes.
The indicted CBN officials are:
Patience Okoro-Eye (Abuja) , Afolabi Olufemi (Lagos), Kolawole Babalola (Ibadan), Olaniran Muniru Adeola (Ibadan), Fatai Yusuf, Adekunle (Head, Security, CBN, Ibadan) and Ilori Adekunle Sunday (Akure).
The lid on the scam, widely suspected to have gone on unchecked for years, was blown on November 3, 2014 via a petition to the EFCC alleging that over N6.58billion was cornered and discreetly recycled by top executives of the CBN at the Ibadan branch.
This sparked off the investigation by the EFCC.
The deposit banks in this instance are Zenith Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, Skye Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Bank.
The suspects are to be arraigned on a five-count charge by the EFCC before a Federal High Court in Ibadan, Oyo State, between Tuesday and Thursday.
“The suspects, who were members of the Briquetting Panel, plotted their way to infamy on September 8, 2014, while carrying out a Briquetting exercise at the CBN Branch, Ibadan. In banking parlance, Briquetting is disintegration and destruction of counted and audited dirty notes. By this practice, depositor banks usually take mutilated notes to the CBN in exchange for fresh notes equivalent of the amount deposited.
“Instead of carrying out the statutory instruction to destroy the currency, they (the suspects) substituted it with newspapers neatly cut to Naira sizes and proceeded to recycle the defaced and mutilated currency,” EFCC’s spokesperson, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren alleged.