The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, was Wednesday indicted in court by a principal witness, Edward Adamu.
He was testifying in the suit on a four-count charge instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Emefiel, in which he was accused of redesigning the N200, N500 and N1000 notes of the Nigerian currency without approval of the president and the CBN Board.
Adamu, who was a former deputy governor of the apex bank, told the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, that Emefiele did not follow laid down procedure in the process that led to the redesign of some notes of the Nigerian currency.
He was led in examination by Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, counsel to the EFCC at the trial.
Adamu, the fourth witness in the trial also said the redesign of the naira notes launched by President Buhari and currently in circulation was not the one approved by the president or the board of the CBN.
At the trial, he told the court, presided over by Justice Maryanne Anenih, that during his time as staff of the CBN, he has witnessed previous redesign of the nation’s currency aimed at addressing issues of volume of currency in circulation, inflation, counterfeiting and general currency management, among others.
Adamu said before the exercise carried out by Mr. Emefiele, the process of naira redesigning known to him originates from the director of Currency Operations to the Committee Of Governors (COG) who passes it to the board for approval before it gets to the president.