Value of CBN currency fraud more than N8bn – EFCC

IBADAN—More indications emerged yesterday at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, where some bankers from the Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks are standing trial over alleged fraud running into billions of naira as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, told the court that the stolen money was more than the N8 billion being reported in the media.

The anti-corruption commission represented by its counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) and other counsel gave this hint while proving the enormity of the offences committed and reason why the court should not grant the bail applications the accused tendered to the court.

He said, “There are other boxes they poured acid on. That alone contained N3.9 billion. The money stolen is even more than N8 billion that the media is writing.”

EFCC operatives leading fresh suspects in the N8 billion CBN staff fraud to the court premises in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday

According to him, the commission, during one of its investigations, discovered that there were over 8,000 boxes that were yet to be opened by the CBN in its strong rooms and on opening 107 of the boxes for the First Bank that should contain N1.7 billion, only N256,000 was found in them.

He further told the court how the accused were alleged to have made confessional statements that they actually committed the offence.

At the sitting presided over by Justice Adeyinka Faaji, all the counsels to the accused submitted that the offence was a bailable and that the court reserved the discretion whether or not to grant the accused bail. The counsels who include Mr. Nathaniel Oke, Michael Lana, Olalekan Ojo and others fought spiritedly to convince the court why their clients should be granted bail.

But counsel to the 4th defendant/applicant, Oke argued that an order for accelerated hearing cannot be a substitute to freedom and accessibility. It would be fair to allow counsel to have unlimited access to the clients for information that may be needed at any time. He added that the court should not entertain any fear or only consider the risk of jumping bail.

The court then adjourned the case to June 19, 2015 for ruling on the applications for bail. The second batch of the case was still on-going as at the time of filing this report

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