The special investigator tasked with probing the Central Bank of Nigeria, Jim Obazee, has returned with recommended charges for some senior officials of the past administration, saying they were linked to a brazen and relentless heist of public coffers.
Jim 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 Mr 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.”
