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A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele over alleged unlawful currency production, has blamed commercial banks for the scarcity of the new naira notes produced by the apex bank shortly before the 2023 general elections.

The witness, Emere Chinedu admitted that some commercial banks were  partly responsible for the scarcity of the new naira notes through hoarding when they were printed and circulated between 2022 and 2023.

Chinedu, who spoke while being cross-examined on Tuesday by Emefiele’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), said the banks were found to have committed infractions through hoarding by a special panel set up by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to  monitored the release of the new notes to the general public. 

The witness who spoke at the resumed hearing in the case before Justice Maryanne Anenih of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sitting in Maitama, said he was not in possession of documents on how the CBN, under Emefiele, distributed the new notes to the  banks.

He agreed that the crisis that followed the redesign of the currency was partly attributable to the infractions by some commercial banks. 

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The witness, who said he headed the Inter-Ministerial Probe Panel that investigated the CBN on the naira redesign crisis, said he was not aware that the EFCC penalised  the banks found to have been in the infractions.

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He also said he was not aware if the CBN asked the EFCC to take action against the banks hoarding the new naira notes.

He added that  some committees that monitored the release of the new notes to the public across the country were not satisfied with the conduct of the banks in handling the assignment.

The cross-examination session was however stalled when Ojo complained about the alleged delay by the prosecution to release to the defence team a copy of the report of the EFCC’s probe panel.

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He noted that although the court had, about a month ago, ordered that a copy of the report be served on the defence, the prosecution only served the defendant’s lawyers in the court on Tuesday.

Ojo, who complained about the late service, said the development has prevented the defence team from cross examining the witness on the document because it was not afforded enough time to study the document.

He then, prayed the court for an adjornment to enable the defence team study the report before engaging in further cross examination of the witness, a request the judge granted and adjourned till March 19.