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But the EFCC witness said he could not recall the total number of banks where officials committed the alleged infractions during the naira redesign saga.

by Falmata Daniel

An investigative officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday told the FCT High Court in Abuja that he was aware of infractions, including hoarding of currency notes, by commercial banks during the controversial introduction of redesigned naira notes, which led to untold hardship for many Nigerians between late 2022 and early 2023.

However, the investigator, Chinedu Eneanya, who is the seventh prosecution witness in the trial of Godwin Emefiele, the then-Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, for the illegal naira redesign, said he could not recall the total number of banks where officials hoarded currency notes.He said this while fielding questions from Mr Emefiele’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), during a cross-examination session.

Mr Ojo asked, “Can you confirm to the honourable court that bank officials were hoarding mints?”“I am aware of that, but I cannot be specific,” the witness replied.

Mr Eneanya also said he could not recall all the banks where the infractions were uncovered.

The anti-graft agency accused Mr Emefiele of alleged illegality and widespread chaos, losses and pains caused by the currency note redesign policy in 2022.

Under the policy, CBN redesigned the N200, N500, and N1000 notes and drastically withdrew the old versions from circulation, leading to months long acute shortage of the currency notes due to insufficient supply of the new ones as replacements.

Mr Emefiele faces four charges of illegal redesign of naira notes, disobedience to the direction of law, and illegal act causing injury to the public.

He denied the allegations, which are just a set among a series of criminal cases the EFCC filed against him since his removal from office in 2023.

Defence demands to know if officials were arrested

During Tuesday’s proceedings, Mr Emefiele’s lawyer asked the witness if the EFCC arrested bank officials responsible for hoarding the currencies.

EFCC’s prosecution lawyer, A.O Mohammed, objected to the question, noting that the witness’s beat was limited to investigations.

“His beat was specific; whether it (naira redesign) was a valid approval.”

However, Mr Ojo argued that the witness was not limited to his evidence-in-chief and, as he had the power to make an arrest as an investigative officer.

He noted that the question was also necessary since EFCC alleged that Mr Emefiele caused undue hardship to Nigerians due to the shortage of the redesigned currencies.

After confirming the witness’s designation, the trial judge, Maryann Anenih, asked Mr Eneanya to answer the question.

He replied, “I stated before this court that the EFCC raised a task force; I didn’t say it was my team.”

He said he was not aware of what the EFCC did to the bank officials that caused the infractions.

When asked on whose instructions the EFCC embarked on the visit to all the commercial banks, the witness said he was “not privy to that information.”

Request for documents

Thereafter, Mr Emefiele’s lawyer asked the prosecution to furnish the defence with all the documents related to the case and asked for an adjournment.

The judge adjourned the matter until 19 March for the continuation of the cross-examination of the witness.

Earlier during the day’s proceeding the witness stated that the Managing Director of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM), Ahmed Halilu, disclosed the email communication between De La Rue and himself to the EFCC team.

Mr Eneanya had testified during the previous proceedings held on 3 February that De La Rue was a foreign company in the United Kingdom engaged to redesign the naira notes while the NSPM handled the production.

On Tuesday, the witness said the email communication between De La Rue and the NSPM’s managing director was “made available to my team by the Managing Director of NMPS, and subsequently, the email was opened in front of the team.”

He admitted that Mr Halilu had written a series of statements but could not recall them all.

This prompted Mr Emefiele’s lawyer to request the statements.

Mr Halilu is a brother to former First Lady Aisha Buhari, who was appointed to the position in September 2022 by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.

In July 2024, President Bola Tinubu ordered his removal alongside four other executives of the company.

When asked during the cross-examination if the NSPM had ever designed naira notes at any point in time, the witness, an EFCC investigator, said he “could not remember.”

The witness also could not recall the quantity of currencies available to commercial banks.

He requested that he be allowed to check the records to refresh his memory.

When questioned if the EFCC team reached out to the commercial banks to confirm the specific amounts given to them, he said, “we have a team that went nationwide in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, taking stock and ensuring that those currencies were made available in public.”

He also said that the team kept a record of the stock-taking exercise in regards to what was made available to commercial banks.

Similarly, Mr Emefiele’s lawyer asked for the records to be produced to the defence counsel.

When asked if bank vaults were also checked by the EFCC, the witness said he “was not there in all the teams”.

At the beginning of the proceedings, Mr Emefiele’s lawyer informed the court that his team was only given the investigative report that the defence requested at the previous hearing, 15 minutes before the day’s proceedings.

He noted that the witness was asked to produce the document in court, which he complied with.

Highlights of past testimonies

Since the commencement of the trial, witnesses’ testimonies have shed light on the controversial naira redesign policy.

On 3 February, Mr Eneanya informed the court of the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s minute on the memo Mr Emefiele had submitted.

According to the witness, the former president approved the naira redesign on the condition that it be reproduced locally.

Mr Eneanya earlier told the court in October 2025 that Mr Emefiele embarked on the controversial redesign of naira notes in 2022 without obtaining the bank’s board and Committee of Governors (COG).

He said Mr Emefiele sought the approval of the board and committee of governors for the naira redesign only after former President Buhari gave his assent.

According to the witness, Mr Emefiele admitted this in his extrajudicial statement he wrote during the investigation, preparatory to his trial.

Similarly, in November 2024, the fifth prosecution witness, Kingsley Obiorah, a former deputy governor of the CBN, said the bank’s board never recommended the naira redesign to former President Buhari.

Mr Obiorah, who testified virtually, said he once served as Special Adviser to Mr Emefiele on economic matters.

He said the CBN board first heard of the naira redesign policy in mid-December 2022.