Godwin Emefiele, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been charged with new crimes by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Federal Capital Territory's High Court (FCT).
He was charged by the commission with authorizing the printing of N684,590,000 at a cost of N18.96 billion.
According to the allegations, Emefiele violated the law when enacting the naira swap policy with the intention of hurting the general populace.
Emefiele was also charged by the anti-graft agency with illegally authorizing the removal of N124.8 billion from the Federation's Consolidated Revenue Fund. On April 30, he will be arraigned before Justice Maryann Anenih over the additional four counts.
On November 18, 2023, Emefiele was charged with six charges of procurement fraud in front of a different court judge.
Additionally, he was charged with misusing his position of authority by authorizing a deal for the purchase of 43 cars between 2018 and 2020 for a total of N1.2 billion.
The former bank CEO and Henry Omoile were charged by the EFCC on April 8 in front of Justice R.A. Oshodi of the Special Offenses Court in Ikeja, Lagos, for a purported $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion fraud.
Criminal law specialist Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN) submitted the new charge, which is dated April 2 and designated CR/264/2024.
Section 123 of the Penal Code Law, Cap. 89 Laws of the Federation, 1990, punishes public servants for violating lawful orders with the purpose to do harm to the public. This is the statement of offense for counts one through four of the charge.
It is hereby declared that, between October 19, 2022, and March 5, 2023, in Abuja, you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, willfully disobeyed the directives of Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007 by authorizing the printing of N375,520,000.00 worth of color-swapped N1,000 pieces at a total cost of N11,052, 068,062, without the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria's strict approval. Your actions caused harm to the public, and as such, you committed an offense.
That on October 19, 2022, and March 5, 2023, in Abuja, you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, knowingly disobeyed the directives of Section 19 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 by authorizing the printing of 172,000,000 pieces of color-swapped N500 notes at a total cost of N4, 471,066,040, without the Federal Republic of Nigeria's Board of Central Bank's recommendation and with the President's strict approval. Your actions caused harm to the public, and as a result, you committed an offense.
It is hereby declared that, between October 19, 2022, and March 5, 2023, in Abuja, you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, willfully disobeyed the directives of Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007 by authorizing the printing of 137,070,000 pieces of color-swapped N200 notes at a total cost of N3, 441, 005, 280, without the advice of the Central Bank Board and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Your actions caused harm to the public, and as such, you committed an offense.