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Emefiele disobeyed Buhari, took naira redesign contract abroad – EFCC - PUNCH
By Deborah Musa
An investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Chinedu Eneanya, on Thursday told the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama that former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disregarded the directive of former President Muhammadu Buhari to award the 2022 naira redesign to a local contractor.
Eneanya, a detective with the EFCC, appeared as the prosecution’s seventh witness and was led in evidence by EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN).
He revealed that four former CBN Deputy Governors—Adesonubi Folasodun, Adamu Edward, Kingsley Obiora, and Aisha Ahmed—were invited for questioning and gave statements regarding their roles in the naira redesign process.
“The approval of the president in the memo was completely jettisoned,” Eneanya stated.
Emefiele is standing trial on a four-count charge related to the unauthorized redesign of the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
The EFCC alleges that he executed the redesign without proper approval from both the President and the CBN Board, leading to significant financial losses.
The witness testified that the naira notes currently in circulation were not the ones approved by Buhari.
According to Eneanya, Buhari’s approved design included security features such as a QR code and colour modifications, which Emefiele ignored in favour of his own version, working with an impractical timeframe.
Further revealing alleged breaches, the witness said Emefiele violated a direct presidential directive by outsourcing the naira redesign and printing to a UK-based firm, De La Rue, despite Buhari’s instructions that the process be handled domestically.
“For the design alone, the British firm was paid £205,000—over N111m at the exchange rate at the time,” Eneanya disclosed.
The witness emphasised that Emefiele’s actions resulted in substantial financial losses for the country, as funds were expended on a process that deviated from the presidential approval.
During cross-examination, Emefiele’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), objected to the witness’s assertion that the former CBN governor “disobeyed” Buhari, arguing that Eneanya was not in a position to make such a claim.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Maryanne Anenih, overruled the objection, allowing the witness to continue his testimony.
As the prosecution sought more time to present additional electronic evidence and call two UK-based witnesses to testify virtually, the defense objected, demanding a formal application.
However, the court found that the EFCC had already provided the names of the witnesses and their expected testimonies in an earlier submission.
Granting the request, Justice Anenih ruled that the two witnesses could testify virtually and adjourned the trial to April 29 for the continuation of evidence.
