Emefiele Faces Probe Over Missing Crude Oil, Undocumented N32.5bn Payment

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, will be probed over missing 48 million barrels of Bonny Light crude and undocumented payments.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee summoned Emefiele to provide answers to the N32.5 billion paid to two companies; Messrs GSCL Consulting and Bizplus, which is related to the missing crude oil. 

It was disclosed that the CBN had made the payment without formal records and without the knowledge of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami. 

The ad hoc committee also revealed that the firms were allegedly paid for consultancy services to the tune of $200 million. 

Emefiele is expected to provide details of the transaction and inform Nigerians why the central bank paid N16.5 billion each to the companies that withdrew the funds within two months. 

Also, the Managing Directors (MDs) of Exxon Mobil and Nigeria Agip Oil company were summoned by the House of Representatives committee. 

Others on the summon list are the auditor-general of the federation, the accountant-general of the federation, the former MD of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the Foreign Affairs Minister, and others. 

Meanwhile, Prime Business Africa notes that Emefiele and the CBN have been under pressure in recent weeks from the condemnation of the apex bank by President Bola Tinubu to a public dispute with a media firm over the devaluation of the naira. 

President Bola Tinubu faulted the handling of the naira redesign policy of the CBN spearheaded by Emefiele. The president said the policy was harshly implemented and it will be reviewed. 

Tinubu also questioned the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBN to raise the interest rate to 18.5%. He went ahead to state that there will be house cleaning in CBN’s MPC. 

Also, a report emerged this week that the CBN has devalued the naira to N631/$1 from N461.6/$1, however, the CBN denied the report, stating that the dollar rate remains at N465/$1 – since the denial, the rate has remained static at N464.67/$1.

Fakoyejo Olalekan

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