There are indications that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
\n(CBN), Godwin Emefiele, is being investigated by the Economic and
\nFinancial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for his alleged complicity in strings
\nof rogue deals executed by ex petroleum minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke
\nand some banks Chief Executive Officers.<\/p>\n
Emefiele is believed to have given cover, approvals and worked
\nhand-in-hand with Mrs. Allison-Madueke in moving slush funds into
\nCommercial Banks.<\/p>\n
Also being checked out are some top officials of the Nigerian Financial
\nIntelligence Unit (NFIU). This is the Nigerian arm of the global financial
\nintelligence Units (FIUs) domiciled within the EFCC as an autonomous unit
\nand operating in the African Region. The NFIU seeks to comply with
\ninternational standards on combating Money Laundering and Financing of
\nTerrorism and proliferation.<\/p>\n
Trouble is, some of the bank chiefs claimed they reported all the rogue
\ntransactions between Alison-Madueke and them to the NFIU.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com sources hinted that the deposits of slush funds by the
\nex Petroleum minister with\u00a0 some bank chiefs would not have been possible
\nwithout the knowledge of Emefiele, who is a close ally of Allison-Madueke.
\nThe CBN, Education Trust Fund (ETF), the NNPC, were among\u00a0 institutions
\nfrom where funds were moved into sundry commercial banks for dark purposes
\nincluding money laundering.<\/p>\n
The Chief Executives of Access Bank, Sterling Bank, Fidelity Banks are
\ncurrently in hot water over slush funds. Also involved is Emefiele\u2019s
\nZenith Bank and First Bank of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
According to our source, Emefiele allegedly\u00a0 provided cover for the
\nmovement of the funds from the Petroleum ministry, NNPC into commercial
\nbanks. It was also gathered that the EFCC operatives are convinced there
\nwas no way the CBN would feign ignorance since the apex bank audits the
\nbanks regularly.<\/p>\n
EFCC source said the agency was conducting discreet investigations and
\nrecoveries of plundered funds from rogue bank CEOs who assisted Ms.
\nAlison-Madueke and other officials of President Jonathan\u2019s administration
\nto launder funds. He added that most of the funds were laundered through
\nopaque accounts that were kept \u201coff records\u201d by bank MDS.<\/p>\n
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC had arrested the
\nManaging Director of Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo and Head of Operations
\nMartins Izuogbe, along with some other officials for allegedly receiving
\n$115 million from\u00a0 Alison-Madueke.<\/p>\n
It was alleged that Diezani called on Okonkwo to help her handle some cash
\nto be distributed to some election groups and officials during the build
\nup to the 2015 General Elections.<\/p>\n
The bank CEO is accused of not reporting the receipt and warehousing of
\nthe cash to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, which is a
\nbreach of law.<\/p>\n
It was also alleged that Alison-Madueke lodged $26 million into an
\naccount, and four companies Actus Integrated, Northern Base Gas Company,
\nMidwestern Oil and Gas and Laitan Adesanya also paid $17.8m, $60m, $9.5m,
\nand $1.35million respectively into the same account.<\/p>\n
It was also alleged that her\u00a0 son Ugbonna Madueke was used as the middle
\nman in the transactions.<\/p>\n
It was gathered that the MD disclosed that\u00a0 it was Alison-Madueke\u2019s\u00a0 son
\nthat sent him a list of beneficiaries which included several INEC
\nofficials and election monitors across the 36 states. Diezani specifically
\ninstructed that the funds be disbursed at least a day or two before the
\nelections. The total amount of money was $115m and Diezani told the bank
\nto convert the funds into naira, which was about N23.3bn at the time.<\/p>\n
Sterling Bank\u2019s CEO, Yemi Adeola, who was also arrested in a raid on his
\nbank by EFCC operatives. Was\u00a0 released after he deposited a payment of N5
\nbillion,\u00a0 \u00a0in partial restitution for a transaction of $88 million he
\nallegedly\u00a0 received from\u00a0 Alison-Madueke.<\/p>\n
EFCC investigators said Zenith Bank had illicitly transferred the $5
\nmillion to Access Bank from a slush fund arranged by Ms. Alison-Madueke.
\nThe bank\u2019s boss, Herbert Wigwe was also arrested.<\/p>\n
The Fidelity Bank management had pushed back, insisting that the CBN and
\nthe Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit.<\/p>\n
It said in a statement \u201cOur attention has been drawn to reports in the
\nmedia on investigations into transactions undertaken by the Bank in the
\nnormal course of business in 2015. The transactions are now the subject
\nmatter of investigations by the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission
\n(EFCC). We can confirm that the transactions were duly reported as
\nrequired by the regulators and the Bank is cooperating fully with the
\nauthorities on the investigation. We assure our numerous stakeholders,
\nincluding our customers that we are working assiduously towards a quick
\nresolution of the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from the slush funds from top officials of the NNPC and office of
\nMrs Allison-Madueke, Emefiele, had been the source of millions of dollars
\nreleased to ex NSA, Sambo Dasuki.\u00a0 The transactions were a times
\nfacilitated by two paragraph letters from Dasuki\u00a0 which served as the
\nAuthority to Incur Expenditure (AIE). In one instance Emefiele released
\n$47 million to the ONSA.<\/p>\n
Reports also hinted that the\u00a0 agency was now looking at First Bank, for
\nits alleged\u00a0 role in laundering more than $1 billion for\u00a0 Dasuki, who is
\non trial for funneling billions of dollars of security funds into private
\nhands. The source added that First Bank may have helped launder funds for
\nMs. Alison-Madueke, Jide Omokore, and Kola\u00a0 Aluko, both who have allegedly
\nstolen more than $6 billion from oil proceeds that should have accrued to
\nthe Nigerian government treasury.<\/p>\n
A source told Pointblanknews.com \u201c The EFCC investigators are digging into
\nthe activities of the CBN boss, Emefiele. He is believed to have given
\ncover to several bank chiefs who opened discreet accounts to deposit slush
\nfunds from government officials for purpose of money laundering and
\nothers.<\/p>\n
“Emefiele is the boss, he audits these banks, he was a very close ally to
\nAlison-Madueke, as a matter of fact he was so influential because of the
\nwoman. So there was no way he would say he knew nothing because the woman
\nwould not have done such deals with the banks without his know,\u201d a source
\ntold Pointblanknews.com<\/p>\n
The source who does not want to be named because he is not authorized to
\nspeak on the matter said \u201cdid you recall what the MD of Fidelity and the
\nmanagement said after his arrest. They said they did nothing wrong because
\nthe NFIU and by extension the CBN were in the know, that they disclosed
\nall the transactions to the regulatory bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CBN boss, our source said, is desperate to hush up his roles, but the
\nbanks are not finding it funny.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmefiele is trying to stay in the clear so we see all these appointments
\nof relatives of influential people in government , he is still very
\ninfluential and you know as CBN boss so many top people do business with
\nhim, so he is moving around to quiet things, but problem is, in so far the
\nbanks are being hounded by the EFCC, Emefiele would be in the EFCC\u2019s cross
\nhairs\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n