CBN SIX
,16 Others for N8billion Currency Fraud
The
Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC has concluded arrangement
to arraign in court, five top executives of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, implicated in a mega scam involving the theft and
recirculation of defaced and mutilated currencies.
The
suspects drawn from various business units of the apex bank are to be
docked by the anti-graft agency before a Federal High Court sitting in
Ibadan, Oyo State, from Tuesday June 2, 2015 to Thursday June 4, 2015.
They
include 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
remaining sixteen suspects are drawn from various commercial banks who
were found to have conspired with the CBN executives to swing the heist
All
the suspects who are currently in the custody of the EFCC are now ruing
the day they literally allowed greed and craze for materialism to be
loud their sense of judgment and responsibility, when they elected to
help themselves to tones of defaced Naira notes. Instead of carrying out
the statutory instruction to destroy the currency, they substituted it
with newspapers neatly cut to Naira sizes and proceeded to recycle the
defaced and mutilated currency.
The
fraud is partly to blame for the failure of government monetary policy
over the years as currency mop up exercises by the apex bank failed to
check the inflationary pressure on the economy.
The
lid on the scam which is 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, 575, 549, 370.00( Six Billion, Five Hundred and
Seventy-Five Million, Five-Hundred and Forty-Nine Thousand, Three
Hundred and Seventy Naira) was cornered and discreetly recycled by light
fingered top executives of the CBN at the Ibadan branch.
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.
The
depositor banks in this instance, are Zenith Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank,
Access Bank, First Bank, Skye Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Bank
But
while carrying out the assignment, the team were alleged to have found
one of the currency boxes filled only with old newspapers rather than 20
bundles of N1000 notes.
A
similar case, according to investigation, had been discovered on
September 22, 2014 when a box that was supposed to contain N500 notes to
the tune of N5billion was filled with old newspapers.
Unlike
in the past, this fraud could not be swept under the carpet, as a
member of the Briquetting Panel from the Osogbo branch blew the lid on
the illicit deal. In a statement, the informant stated that the exercise
was designed to last between August 4 and 8, 2014. The 35-year-old,
however, stated that she discovered a strange ‘sight’ while opening the
third box on the second day of the exercise. It was a discovery that
beat her ken.
She
added that she confronted the other members of the panel, including
Eye, Head, Briquetting Panel; Treasury Assistant; Coordinator and Head,
Security, CBN, Ibadan, who all assured her that they would look into it.
But she later found out that it was all a ruse. She said she later
found out that Eye not only maintained sealed lips over the matter but
omitted it from her report.
A five count charge awaits the suspects as they prepare to face the wrath of the law.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
31st May, 2015
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