In a significant development, anti-graft investigator reveals that CCTV footage captures former cabinet secretary Boss Mustapha and ex-central bank chief Godwin Emefiele allegedly dragging $6.2 million in cash from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s vault just two weeks before the 2023 election.
According to the investigator, who serves as the anti-graft czar, asserts that the footage supports claims of a brazen heist, recommending charges of forgery, concealment, stealing, conspiracy, and fraud against Mustapha and Emefiele.
Obazee contends that President Bola Tinubu should authorize the prosecution of Mustapha and Emefiele for their roles in the alleged removal of $6.23 million in cash from the bank’s vault in Abuja. The purported theft, said to have occurred on February 8, 2023, just two weeks before the February 25 presidential election, is among various instances of alleged corrupt diversion of public funds linked to Emefiele and other officials of the previous Buhari administration.
Detailing the heist in an undated memorandum believed to have reached President Tinubu on December 20, 2023, Obazee states that on February 7-8, 2023, his investigators discovered the “unlawful removal of $6.23 million from the vault cash from the foreign payments office, Abuja branch, of the Central Bank of Nigeria.” Obazee asserts that the acts of unlawful removal were captured on CCTV footage and preserved as evidence.
The investigator, despite his own past corruption and abusive behavior, alleges that the efforts to steal the cash began on January 26 when Mustapha sent a memo to Emefiele requesting $6.23 million in cash. This memo followed a previous one dated January 23 from President Buhari to Mustapha, titled “Presidential Directive on Foreign Election Observer Missions.”
While Obazee did not respond to a request for the video footage, he claims that the money was not given to foreign observers, and a CBN employee flagged the transaction as suspicious but failed to act. He views the unreported transaction as part of a larger conspiracy to conceal wrongdoing by the previous regime at the CBN.
Accordingly, Obazee recommends charging Mustapha, Emefiele, and others with forgery, concealment, stealing, conspiracy, and fraud. He also announces that the investigation into CBN’s actions under Emefiele will continue. However, no immediate charges against former President Buhari are recommended, leaving open the possibility of future evidence compelling legal action—a potential historical first in Nigerian history.
When contacted Mustapha declined to comment, and an aide to Emefiele stated that the former CBN chief, released after 195 days in custody, had no comments.
