In what has been described by many as a season movie, the just suspended former Governor of Nigeria’s Apex Bank, Godwin Emefiele has been in the custody of men of the Department of State Security (DSS) since he was removed from office by the Tinubu administration over allegations bordering on corrupt practices while in office.

Reacting to Emefiele’s incarceration, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who addressed an interactive session of Nigerians in Paris revealed that the country’s financial system under the watch of the former CBN Governor was indeed ‘rotten”.

ENigeria Newspaper reports that Godwin Emefiele reportedly spearheaded a dollar racketeering ring that consists of his cronies among whom is Abdul Samad Rabiu the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interest in oil, cement, FMCG, et al.
This Newspaper reports that at the expense of impoverished Nigerians, the embattled CBN Governor opened a forex credit line for Rabiu which enables him to borrow at the official rate of N199 at the time, resell at a black-market rate of N495, and rake in billions of naira in turnover in quick succession.

This investigation which is the first part chronicles Nigerian billionaires who enjoyed Emefiele’s dollar largesse by cheating the entire Nigerian financial system.

The investigation takes a cursory look and exposes heaps of illegal financial dealing between CBN and BUA Group in a brazen manner, demonstrating a massive credit from the CBN to the controversial Abdul Samad Rabiu-led company.
For instance, Emefiele allegedly ordered the transfer of N1,382,500,000 being a forex purchase to BUA on 8th January 2016.
On 18th January, BUA International purchased the dollar equivalent of N386,799,033.70 using the official rate of N199 while the black-market rate at the time was N495. On the same day, Emefiele was said to have ordered another disbursement of forex worth N520,217,528 to BUA. Another N1,382,500,000 was also sent on the same day as well as on 22nd January respectively.

On 22nd January, another N386,799.033 and N520,217,528 was again wired from CBN account in forex to BUA.
On 15th February, similar disbursements of N386,799.033, N1,382,500,000, and N520,217,528 left the nation’s account to BUA.
Similarly, on 23rd February, N386,799.033 and N520,217,528 made BUA International smile on the order of Emefiele. In like manner, again on 2nd March the company got another lodgment of N386,799.033 and N520,217,528.

On 31st March, the country’s foreign reserve depleted with $49,375,000 from CBN to BUA into its Ecobank account number 9992023306. Via its GTB account 214161839, USD sale of forex at the official rate of N197.5 worth N2 billion was again given to the company by CBN.
Via CBN intervention fund when the company was financially viable, the sum of N392,034,060 in three tranches was paid to BUA Sugar Refinery using the official rate of N198 to its Stanbic IBTC account number 11889618. Troves of these financial documents saw over N40 billion in returns to Abdul Samad Rabiu-led BUA alone, in the year 2016 with the active connivance of Godwin Emefiele.

As stated earlier, this investigation takes a look elaborately at and exposes the role of a corrupt CBN headed by Emefiele, a former Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc, and how he transformed the fortune of Abdul Samad Rabiu and other Northern billions in his cadre and transformed them into global moneybags at the expense of other hardworking Nigerians.
More to come in our next publication.