A prosecution witness at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja has alleged that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) withdrew N124.86 billion from the Consolidated Revenue Account (CRA) without approval from the National Assembly during the tenure of former CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.
The witness, Hamisu Abdullahi, a deputy director in the CBN’s domestic settlement division, testified during the ongoing trial involving allegations of illegal activities against Emefiele, including the controversial redesign of the naira.
According to Abdullahi, the funds were used to settle internal debts accumulated by the CBN after the federal government directed the bank to make payments to certain agencies without releasing the necessary funds.
He explained that the unpaid obligations eventually rose to N124.86 billion, prompting Emefiele to allegedly authorize the debit from the Consolidated Revenue Account, which is the main government account for public revenues and expenditures.
The witness stated that withdrawals from the CRA are legally required to receive approval from the National Assembly through budgetary or appropriation processes, but claimed no such approval was obtained before the transaction was carried out.
He also told the court that there was no presidential approval for the debit, although he noted that such absence was not specifically treated as wrongdoing in his testimony.
Abdullahi said Emefiele instructed the Deputy Governor in charge of operations to debit the account and transfer the funds to settle long-standing liabilities.
Providing details of the transactions, the witness said the pilgrimage subsidy account received N43 billion, while the federal government receivable account was credited with N43 billion and another N38.6 billion.
He added that the CBN frequently handled requests involving concessionary foreign exchange rates for Muslim and Christian pilgrims.
According to him, concerns raised by external auditors regarding the transaction were addressed with explanations that the funds were used to clear existing debts. He said similar explanations were also given to investigators from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
During the hearing, the EFCC presented an internal memo related to the approval of the transaction, which was admitted as evidence by the court.
The witness explained that the memo contained contributions from several senior CBN officials, including former banking services director Okojere Christopher, former Deputy Governor Adebisi Sonobi, and Emefiele himself, whom he described as the highest-ranking official involved in the approval chain.
Under cross-examination, Emefiele’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, argued that the former CBN governor did not personally benefit from the funds and that no evidence had shown any individual suffered direct harm from the transaction.
The defence also maintained that the approval process involved senior CBN officials and committees responsible for banking operations.
A disagreement later emerged between the prosecution and defence over access to the witness’ statement, with both sides debating whether the document had already been made available to the defence team.
Following arguments from both counsels, the trial judge adjourned proceedings until June 9 for continuation of the case.
