A prosecution witness told the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja on Thursday how the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) debited N124.86 billion from the Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) without the National Assembly’s approval during Godwin Emefiele’s time as the CBN governor.
Hamisu Abdullahi, a deputy director working at CBN’s Domestic Settlement Division handling interbank transactions, said the money was used to settle the CBN’s “internal debts”.
Mr Hamisu testified as the ninth prosecution witness in the trial of Mr Emefiele on various charges of illegal activities, including the alleged unlawful redesign of the naira notes.
The case is one in a series Mr Emefiele has been facing since his removal from office in June 2023 over corruption allegations and sundry malfeasances.
Led in evidence by prosecution lawyer A.O. Mohammed on Thursday, the witness said the CBN incurred the N124.86 billion internal debts from various directives it received from the Federal Government to pay certain agencies without providing funds for the payments.
According to Mr Hamisu, this created a huge debt on CBN’s internal books. He said the accumulated unpaid bills added up to N124.86 billion.
To meet the demands, he said Mr Emefiele turned to the Consolidated Revenue Account, which is the primary treasury where all public income is gathered and from which almost all government expenditure is paid.
The CRA is governed by a golden rule: no money can be withdrawn from the account except in a manner prescribed by the National Assembly, usually through an Appropriation Act or budget.
But without such parliamentary approval, Mr Emefiele, according to the witness, directed that the sum of N124.86 billion (N124,860,227,865.16) be debited from the CRA.
He also said there was no presidential approval for the debit from the CRA, although he did not count that against Mr Emefiele as wrongdoing.
The witness said Mr Emefiele, in a minute, directed the Deputy Governor in charge of Operations to debit the CRA and credit the proceeds into the accounts housing the long-outstanding debts.
Giving a breakdown of its distribution, the witness said the pilgrimage subsidy account was credited with N43 billion.
He said the Federal Government receivable account was credited twice with N43 billion and N38.6 billion.
Explaining further, Mr Hamisu said the CBN usually receives requests for concessionary rates in the sale of foreign exchange for Muslim and Christian pilgrims.
He said when external auditors raised concerns about the debit, they were told that the funds were used to address long-outstanding debts.
He also said the same explanation was offered to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) during its investigations into Mr Emefiele’s activities.
Mr Emefiele is standing trial on four counts, including illegal redesign of naira notes, disobedience to the direction of law, and illegal act causing injury to the public.
The former CBN governor, who was removed by President Bola Tinubu in June 2023 after over eight years in office, denied the charges.
Mr Hamisu gave details of Mr Emefiele’s approving memo in his testimony on Thursday.
The witness said Jim Obazee, a special investigator, requested an explanation on the memo that authorised the debit of N124.86 billion from the CRA.
The EFCC tendered the said memo, and the court admitted it as an exhibit.
The witness said during Mr Obazee’s investigation, his department was contacted over CBN’s internal memo that dealt with the N124.86 billion.
The witness said he knew Mr Emefiele as a former CBN governor, and he, Mr Hamisu, certified the internal memo in question.
He explained to the court that there were four minutes on the memo. He said the then Director of Banking Services, Okojere Christopher, wrote the first and the last minutes.
According to the witness, Mr Emefiele wrote the second minute, and the then-Deputy Governor of the CBN, Adebisi Sonobi, wrote the third.
Mr Hamisu said Mr Emefiele, as the CBN governor, was the highest-ranking officer among those who minuted on the memo.
“The first minute on the memo was by the then Director of Banking Services, Okojere Christopher. The second one was by Godwin Emefiele, the then CBN governor.
“The third minute was by the former Deputy Governor of the CBN, Adebisi Sonobi, and the fourth minute was by Okojere.
“The above names were the high-ranking officers in the bank, and Emefiele is the highest in the hierarchy.”
There was no approval from the National Assembly, the witness said, adding that his own role was to carry out Mr Emefiele’s instructions.
During cross-examination by Mr Emefiele’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the witness said Mr Emefiele did not benefit from the fund, and he did not come across any letter “complaining that anyone was prejudiced or suffered because of the debt.”
The witness explained that the decision to recover the N124.8 billion was officially approved by CBN’s directors and the Committee of Governors. He clarified that in such regular banking operations, the CBN does not always need the President’s permission to settle debts within the government’s main account.
“Approval was initiated by the Banking Services Department based on the instructions of the governor through the Director of Finance, who sent the message via email,” the witness said.
Mr Ojo then shifted the witness’ focus to his extrajudicial statement.
He asked the witness if his statement to the investigator, Mr Obazee, had a police logo. He answered, “No.”
