There are indications that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), Godwin Emefiele, is being investigated by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for his alleged complicity in strings
of rogue deals executed by ex petroleum minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke
and some banks Chief Executive Officers.
Emefiele is believed to have given cover, approvals and worked
hand-in-hand with Mrs. Allison-Madueke in moving slush funds into
Commercial Banks.
Also being checked out are some top officials of the Nigerian Financial
Intelligence Unit (NFIU). This is the Nigerian arm of the global financial
intelligence Units (FIUs) domiciled within the EFCC as an autonomous unit
and operating in the African Region. The NFIU seeks to comply with
international standards on combating Money Laundering and Financing of
Terrorism and proliferation.
Trouble is, some of the bank chiefs claimed they reported all the rogue
transactions between Alison-Madueke and them to the NFIU.
Pointblanknews.com sources hinted that the deposits of slush funds by the
ex Petroleum minister with some bank chiefs would not have been possible
without the knowledge of Emefiele, who is a close ally of Allison-Madueke.
The CBN, Education Trust Fund (ETF), the NNPC, were among institutions
from where funds were moved into sundry commercial banks for dark purposes
including money laundering.
The Chief Executives of Access Bank, Sterling Bank, Fidelity Banks are
currently in hot water over slush funds. Also involved is Emefiele’s
Zenith Bank and First Bank of Nigeria.
According to our source, Emefiele allegedly provided cover for the
movement of the funds from the Petroleum ministry, NNPC into commercial
banks. It was also gathered that the EFCC operatives are convinced there
was no way the CBN would feign ignorance since the apex bank audits the
banks regularly.
EFCC source said the agency was conducting discreet investigations and
recoveries of plundered funds from rogue bank CEOs who assisted Ms.
Alison-Madueke and other officials of President Jonathan’s administration
to launder funds. He added that most of the funds were laundered through
opaque accounts that were kept “off records” by bank MDS.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC had arrested the
Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo and Head of Operations
Martins Izuogbe, along with some other officials for allegedly receiving
$115 million from Alison-Madueke.
It was alleged that Diezani called on Okonkwo to help her handle some cash
to be distributed to some election groups and officials during the build
up to the 2015 General Elections.
The bank CEO is accused of not reporting the receipt and warehousing of
the cash to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, which is a
breach of law.
It was also alleged that Alison-Madueke lodged $26 million into an
account, and four companies Actus Integrated, Northern Base Gas Company,
Midwestern Oil and Gas and Laitan Adesanya also paid $17.8m, $60m, $9.5m,
and $1.35million respectively into the same account.
It was also alleged that her son Ugbonna Madueke was used as the middle
man in the transactions.
It was gathered that the MD disclosed that it was Alison-Madueke’s son
that sent him a list of beneficiaries which included several INEC
officials and election monitors across the 36 states. Diezani specifically
instructed that the funds be disbursed at least a day or two before the
elections. The total amount of money was $115m and Diezani told the bank
to convert the funds into naira, which was about N23.3bn at the time.
Sterling Bank’s CEO, Yemi Adeola, who was also arrested in a raid on his
bank by EFCC operatives. Was released after he deposited a payment of N5
billion, in partial restitution for a transaction of $88 million he
allegedly received from Alison-Madueke.
EFCC investigators said Zenith Bank had illicitly transferred the $5
million to Access Bank from a slush fund arranged by Ms. Alison-Madueke.
The bank’s boss, Herbert Wigwe was also arrested.
The Fidelity Bank management had pushed back, insisting that the CBN and
the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit.
It said in a statement “Our attention has been drawn to reports in the
media on investigations into transactions undertaken by the Bank in the
normal course of business in 2015. The transactions are now the subject
matter of investigations by the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC). We can confirm that the transactions were duly reported as
required by the regulators and the Bank is cooperating fully with the
authorities on the investigation. We assure our numerous stakeholders,
including our customers that we are working assiduously towards a quick
resolution of the issues.”
Aside from the slush funds from top officials of the NNPC and office of
Mrs Allison-Madueke, Emefiele, had been the source of millions of dollars
released to ex NSA, Sambo Dasuki. The transactions were a times
facilitated by two paragraph letters from Dasuki which served as the
Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE). In one instance Emefiele released
$47 million to the ONSA.
Reports also hinted that the agency was now looking at First Bank, for
its alleged role in laundering more than $1 billion for Dasuki, who is
on trial for funneling billions of dollars of security funds into private
hands. The source added that First Bank may have helped launder funds for
Ms. Alison-Madueke, Jide Omokore, and Kola Aluko, both who have allegedly
stolen more than $6 billion from oil proceeds that should have accrued to
the Nigerian government treasury.
A source told Pointblanknews.com “ The EFCC investigators are digging into
the activities of the CBN boss, Emefiele. He is believed to have given
cover to several bank chiefs who opened discreet accounts to deposit slush
funds from government officials for purpose of money laundering and
others.
“Emefiele is the boss, he audits these banks, he was a very close ally to
Alison-Madueke, as a matter of fact he was so influential because of the
woman. So there was no way he would say he knew nothing because the woman
would not have done such deals with the banks without his know,” a source
told Pointblanknews.com
The source who does not want to be named because he is not authorized to
speak on the matter said “did you recall what the MD of Fidelity and the
management said after his arrest. They said they did nothing wrong because
the NFIU and by extension the CBN were in the know, that they disclosed
all the transactions to the regulatory bodies.”
The CBN boss, our source said, is desperate to hush up his roles, but the
banks are not finding it funny.
“Emefiele is trying to stay in the clear so we see all these appointments
of relatives of influential people in government , he is still very
influential and you know as CBN boss so many top people do business with
him, so he is moving around to quiet things, but problem is, in so far the
banks are being hounded by the EFCC, Emefiele would be in the EFCC’s cross
hairs”.