By Ezekiel Awojide
A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Emere Chinedu, has admitted that some commercial banks in the country were partly responsible for the scarcity of the new naira notes through hoarding when printed and circulated between 2022 and 2023.
He said that the affected banks were found to have committed infractions through hoarding by a Special Panel of the EFCC that monitored the release of the new naira notes to the general public.
The witness gave the revelation on Tuesday while testifying at the trial of the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
Although he claimed not to have documents on how the CBN under Emefiele distributed the new naira notes to the commercial banks, he admitted that the crisis that followed the redesign of the currency was attributable to the infractions by some commercial banks.
The witness while being cross-examined by Olalekan Ojo SAN, the lead counsel to Emefiele said he was not aware whether punitive actions were taken against the erring banks by the anti- graft agency.
Chinedu, who headed the Inter-Ministerial Probe Panel that investigated CBN on the Naira redesign crisis, told Justice Maryann Anenih that some committees that monitored the release of the new naira notes to the public across the country were not satisfied with the actions of the commercial banks on the infractions.
‘We remanded the quantity of the currency notes released to the commercial banks in Nigeria after the printing but I don’t have the figure right here. We have the records. I would like to check the records to refresh my memory.
“The sub-committees have separate records of the banks they visited to know the volumes of currency distributed by the CBN to commercial banks.
“There were infractions by some commercial banks in the release of the new naira notes to Nigerians but I cannot be specific.
“I am not aware of the EFCC action against the banks involved in the infractions. I am not aware of the CBN asking EFCC to take action against the banks hoarding the new naira notes”, he said.
Meanwhile, Justice Anenih has fixed March 19 for the continuation of further trial following the late release of the EFCC Probe Panel report to Emefiele’s legal team.
Although the Judge had about a month ago ordered that a copy of the report be served on the former governor of the CBN, the EFCC only effected the service on Tuesday in the open court.
Counsel to Emefiele protested the late service adding that the action had prevented them from cross-examining the witness on the document because they had not been opportuned to peruse it.
Ojo pleaded with the Judge to grant an adjournment to enable his team read the report before further crosscross-examiningwitness, which was granted by the Judge.
