The humiliated former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, 62, has continued to get the stick from the government of the day for the roles he played when he bossed the country’s apex bank.
Last week, the embattled Emefiele, already swamped by multiple court cases hanging around his neck, pleaded not guilty to a fresh four count charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, focusing mainly on his actions during the heyday of the naira redesign policy.
And should his legal team do sloppy work in the courts on his defence, the Agbor, Delta State-born banker will bag a hefty sentence for his alleged crimes.
Always graceful and oozing charm, Emefiele had a cockiness that knew no bounds. He was appointed Governor of the CBN in the twilight of ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s government.
Nevertheless, in a surprising turn of events, the Muhammadu Buhari All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government who beat Jonathan to the tape during the 2015 presidential election and took over the reins of power, magnanimously decided to retain Emefiele’s services.
And so like something out of a movie, Emefiele sailed with Buhari until that administration came ashore after its tenure expired. It was an eventful journey but it meant that his woes had formally begun.
Though Emefiele had a run-in with Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services, who accused him of terrorism financing and economic sabotage when he held sway as CBN Governor, nothing prepared him for the travails he would endure when Buhari’s government wound down.
Emefiele, while he was head honcho at the CBN, had dabbled into politics and daydreamed about taking over from Buhari. His supporters, in defiance of the CBN Act, had even bought a presidential nomination form for him.
“Whether he will succeed or not succeed in getting away depends on the evidence that is available. It is not something one can speculate about. It is something based on hard evidence. The evidence will determine what his chances will look like or what he will get”
And though he went to court to stop the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Attorney General of the Federation, from preventing him from contesting the presidential election, he later withdrew the case.
Perhaps, Emefiele’s most prominent sin was his drive to redesign Nigeria’s currency, the naira, a policy which the EFCC claims was implemented without Buhari’s approval.
That policy, which gained negative traction during the build-up to the last general elections, pitched some members of the APC against Emefiele.
President Bola Tinubu was among those who vented frustration at the naira design policy, together with the attendant cashless policy. Jagaban said the policy was intended to make him lose the election.
The former governor of Lagos State was attacked by his opponents for resisting the policy. They said he feared that Buhari wanted to nip money politics in the bud before Nigerians went to the polls.
Against all the odds, Tinubu won the election. He was also inaugurated as president, which turned the tables. Emefiele, on the other hand, knew he was toast. He tried to parley with the new president but that did not yield fruit.
So, less than two weeks after he was sworn-in, Tinubu suspended Emefiele on June 9, 2023 and the following day, the Department of State Services announced that he had been arrested.
However, his arrest was a highly divisive issue. Some Nigerians viewed it as a witch-hunt and vindictive while others demanded that Emefiele’s former boss, Buhari, be arrested, too, since he (Emefiele) did not operate in a vacuum.
Six weeks into his detention without trial, the banking guru finally appeared in a Federal High Court, which sat in Lagos State. The once assertive Emefiele had lost his aura and his outward mien was not cheerful.
He elicited pity from a section of the public but there were also other Nigerians who called for his head because of the hardship he subjected them to with some of his “wicked” policies.
Nigerians did not forget how some of them went to the banks naked, crying to get their money.
There was, however, a catch with Emefiele’s arrest. The DSS had charged him with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, and Nigerians almost went berserk, brooding about why a man who committed heinous economic crimes was getting away with such a “flimsy charge,” and they called out the government for it.
Emefiele pleaded not guilty to the charges and the DSS, later in August, withdrew the charges and subsequently freed him on October 26, but once again he was held, this time, by the EFCC.
The EFCC also dilly-dallied with bringing Emefiele to court. It took a court order before they produced him at an Abuja High Court in November 2023.
He was granted an N300m bail by the court after he stood trial on six counts bordering on procurement fraud to the tune of N1.2bn brought against him by the EFCC.
He was thereupon remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre. He met his bail conditions and was reported to have been “freed” in December 2023.
But nay, the EFCC were having none of that and so fresh charges were filed, once again, against Emefiele.
So, last Wednesday, the EFCC arraigned him on four fresh counts before the Federal Capital Territory High Court at Maitama in Abuja.
They accused him of printing N684.5 million notes at an outrageous cost of N18.96 billion.
Also, the agency accused Emefiele of illegally approving the withdrawal of about N124.8bn from the consolidated revenue fund.
The EFCC also said that during the implementation of his naira design policy, Emefiele had acted in violation of law with, as they put it, intent to cause injury to the public.
Lastly, they also accused Emefiele of going ahead with his policy without the approval of the Board of the CBN or that of the president (Buhari).
As expected, he pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him before the trial judge, Maryann Anenih, who thereafter granted bail to the tune of N300 million, with two sureties.
Pending the time he perfects his bail conditions, Emefiele will still be remanded at Kuje prisons. The case was adjourned to May 28 and 29 for commencement of trial.
In an interview with The Point, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Bola Aidi, was asked what he thought were Emefiele’s chances of avoiding a prison sentence.
He said, “That is entirely in the hands of the prosecution. It depends on the evidence that the prosecution has against him.
“Whether he will succeed or not succeed in getting away depends on the evidence that is available. It is not something one can speculate about. It is something based on hard evidence. The evidence will determine what his chances will look like or what he will get.”
Aidi also said if Emefiele was eventually found guilty, the court would give him “a sentence which is entirely dependent on the court and the number of charges.”
He, however, said since the High Court was the court of first instance; Emefiele has a right of appeal.
On the number of years Emefiele would spend in prison if he were to be convicted and the Supreme Court okayed it, he said, “It depends on multiple charges that are against him and each of the counts and what the maximum penalty prescribed for each of those counts.
“If he is charged, for instance, with 10 different offenses and each of them carries 10 years, at the end of the day, if they run concurrently, then he might just be going away for 10 years.”
Another legal luminary, Fred Aigbadumah, berated the EFCC for always throwing up “new trumped-up” charges against Emefiele. He said the charges were an afterthought and without considerations for the law.
“They (EFCC) keep amending the charges almost every week and also keep throwing up new trumped-up charges, like the recent one (about naira redesign), which they said he did without the consent of the president.
“Is that possible in a democratic setting under the constitution? When we know that Buhari himself came up on air to announce that the new denomination would be accepted while the old one would not.
“So, the charges are as an afterthought and without considerations for the law on some of the offenses,” Aigbadumah said.
He also suggested that most of Emefiele’s offenses were not such that could be charged alone.
“Buhari should not be walking freely on the streets of Nigeria today.
“He should not be relaxing in peace in Daura with all that he caused and the pains he heaped on Nigeria, which is still continuing under this regime,” he said.
And on Emefiele regaining his freedom, Aigbadumah said, “It will be very difficult for any court to set him free, looking at most of the offenses he has been charged with.
“They may find him guilty of some, and some other, they may discharge him or discharge and acquit him. He is not likely to go free. But the question, again, to ask is the number of years it will take for them to complete the trial.”
Whether Emefiele’s travail was a witch-hunt, Aigbadumah said yes and no.
While explaining, he said, “Any man that rides on the back of a tiger may end up in the stomach of the tiger.
“Emefiele is a victim of his own making and circumstances. He is also a victim of the vindictive proclivity of our politicians.”
Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Oladipo Olasope, said the fate of Emefiele may not be different from other former public officers who had been jailed for corruption.
In an interview with The Point, the senior lawyer noted that despite the heavy charges placed on some past political office holders who were convicted for corrupt practices, some of them were granted amnesty.
He cited cases of former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame and former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye who were later granted amnesty by former President Muhammadu Buhari, saying Emefiele’s fate may not be different.
According to him, Emefiele’s freedom from meeting bail conditions will not deprive him from living his life the way he wants it because the law presumes him innocent until proven contrary by the court.
Olasope said if the embattled former CBN Governor is found guilty by the three courts, sentences would be passed and that he would serve his jail terms, adding that if he is set free by the courts, he would be a free man.
The last offence Emefiele was arraigned for was that he printed N684.5 million notes at an outrageous cost of N18.96 billion.
He said if Emefiele is set free, the government might appeal the judgements because, according to him, “you should know that Emefiele’s problems are more political.”
The senior lawyer said, “He (Emefiele) has been granted bail because the law presumes him innocent until it is proven otherwise and if he is set free at the end of the trials, he goes free. There is nothing anyone can do about it.”
“They may find him guilty of some, and some other, they may discharge him or discharge and acquit him. He is not likely to go free. But the question, again, to ask is the number of years it will take for them to complete the trial”
“We cannot speculate what will happen to him now since the matter is ongoing,” he posited.
Naming those who have faced similar trials and got freedom, the SAN stated, “If you look at all the people that have been charged for corruption, some of them have been granted amnesty. Jolly Nyame and the other governor from Plateau State (Joshua Dariye) have been granted amnesty and they are free today.”
“So, we wait and see what Emefiele’s fate would be,” he added.
A Kano-based legal luminary, Abdul Adamu Fagge in a telephone chat with The Point said, “All these are allegations by the EFCC. The EFCC has to prove these allegations that bother on some issues of moving some tellers out of the bank, printing some certain amount at the cost that tripled the amount, and so on.
All these are allegations, so it’s now left for the EFCC to come with cognate and cogent evidence to establish their case and prove those allegations.
“If EFCC fails in the course of prosecution to establish all the charges leveled against him, definitely, the Judge will release him and he will be discharged and acquitted. You know that is generally especially in criminal charges. The burden squarely lies on the prosecution. That’s why at times, if the prosecution has successfully established their case, the defence that is on the side of Emefiele there is nothing they can do. They cannot do magic except in some, maybe in the process of establishing their case, there is a technical problem, maybe in the aspect of drafting charges and they committed some errors. But provided they have good charges and they have evidence both oral and documented that they can establish in deed and not only committed to oral allegations but if they don’t have any evidence worthy of convicting Emefiele, at the end of the day, he will be discharged and acquitted,” he said.
A human rights lawyer and activist, John Bosco Ayuba, said even as he wants every corrupt person to be prosecuted, when a case is clearly political vendetta, it becomes worrisome.
While alluding to what the former CBN Governor is passing through under the present administration as a payback for the role he played before the election which Tinubu said was targeted at him, Ayuba said he is not sure the courts, even the Supreme Court has a say in the case.
“I have always campaigned that corrupt person’s be prosecuted regardless of the level of corruption. But one thing is very glaring about the Emefiele case.
It’s a case of payback time. During the presidential primaries, Emefiele as a serving Governor of CBN was fully involved as an aspirant, after that the CBN introduced cashless economy and redesign of the naira notes and you know Tinubu now the President did not hide his ill feelings about that. He declared it publicly that the naira redesign was targeted at him. So, when all these charges are flying, some of us see it as a “get back at him” policy. I’m not saying Emefiele did not commit these crimes leveled against him or that he committed them. That is for the courts to decide. However, there is a saying that when sand is too much in soup, a blind man will know.
“For now, what is happening is pure politics. How else can anyone see it? Remember the show of shame that took place at a Lagos High Court between the security agencies. It was self-explanatory. That Emefiele has remained in the custody of EFCC after a protracted sojourn in the DSS detention and till date has remained not bail-able is a sure proof that the matter is purely political. Nonetheless, the case is before the court, so it depends on the two divides: the prosecution and the defence. Whatever they are able to present before the court will determine the fate of Emefiele.
“As for whether there are people who faced this and came out of it, my reaction is that it depends on what the matter was. So many people have had worse cases than this and were left off the hook while so many also were consumed by the same. But in this particular one, it looks like the powers that be have an axe to grind with Emefiele and that makes it very difficult,” he said.
