A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed that some commercial banks were responsible for the scarcity of the new naira notes that troubled Nigerians between 2022 and 2023.
The witness, Emere Chinedu, made this disclosure on Tuesday while testifying in court during the trial of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the FCT High Court in Abuja.
According to him, investigations by a special EFCC panel showed that some banks hoarded the new naira notes instead of releasing them to the public after they were printed and circulated.
Chinedu, who led an inter-ministerial probe on the naira redesign, said although he did not have exact figures of how the CBN distributed the money, it was clear that bank infractions played a major role in the cash crisis.
While being questioned by Emefiele’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), the witness admitted he was not aware of any punishment given to the banks involved in the hoarding.
He also told the court that monitoring teams were not satisfied with how some banks handled the release of the new notes, but could not mention specific banks at the time.
Meanwhile, Justice Maryann Anenih has fixed March 19 for the continuation of the trial. The court granted an adjournment after Emefiele’s lawyers complained about the late release of the EFCC probe report, which they said limited their ability to question the witness properly.
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