N8bn CBN scam: Court rejects bail application as EFCC presents witnesses
Judge JO Abdulmalik of the Federal Supreme Court in Ibadan on Wednesday refused to give bail to the defendants in the $ 8 billion mutilated money fraud case involving officials of the Nigerian Central Bank and some commercial banks.
When the case arose to decide on the application for bail, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission brought two witnesses to court.
One of the witnesses, Mr. Ademola Oni, is a former banker of Wema Bank Plc, while the other, Mr. Edwin Ennah, retired as head of the unit of possession and disposition of currency in the CBN.
Oni had entered into an agreement to regain custody, while Ennah was among those arrested when the fraud was detected in 2014, but was later released.
Oni told the court during an interrogation by the defense lawyer that he contacted Olaniran Muniru and Togun Kayode when he visited the CBN to deposit money.
Some of the defendants 'lawyers said the judge could have rejected the defendants' bail request in preference for the fast-track hearing.
But the relatives of the bankers, who went to court in large numbers to anticipate that their loved ones would be released on bail by the judge after about three years in custody in Agodi prison, said that the failure of the bail request it was not fair.
They pointed out that other persons accused in the case were granted bail after negotiating the guilty plea.
During the interrogation, Ennah said it was discovered that mutilated high denomination note packets like N1000 and N500 were mixed with N100 notes, and added that sometimes, when the CBN thought it had been disbursed around N10bn, an amount of money much smaller was actually destroyed.
This, he said, meant that mutilated bills destined for destruction remained in circulation.
He also said that a box containing mutilated bills of N10m was found to contain newspapers.
Ayodele Adeyemi's lawyer, Michael Lana, said that from Ennah's statement, the CCTV in the treasure room was not working at that time and Ennah should be worried that he would not tell her.
He also asked Ennah if he was not surprised that a controller from a CBN department asked them to contribute money to compensate for the missing amount when one of the frauds was discovered.
Defense prosecutor Tayo Olukotun lamented that the cross-examination of witnesses by the defense lawyer was ambiguous, as it went beyond the statement made by Ennah and was admitted by the court as evidence.
When the case arose to decide on the application for bail, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission brought two witnesses to court.
One of the witnesses, Mr. Ademola Oni, is a former banker of Wema Bank Plc, while the other, Mr. Edwin Ennah, retired as head of the unit of possession and disposition of currency in the CBN.
Oni had entered into an agreement to regain custody, while Ennah was among those arrested when the fraud was detected in 2014, but was later released.
Oni told the court during an interrogation by the defense lawyer that he contacted Olaniran Muniru and Togun Kayode when he visited the CBN to deposit money.
Some of the defendants 'lawyers said the judge could have rejected the defendants' bail request in preference for the fast-track hearing.
But the relatives of the bankers, who went to court in large numbers to anticipate that their loved ones would be released on bail by the judge after about three years in custody in Agodi prison, said that the failure of the bail request it was not fair.
They pointed out that other persons accused in the case were granted bail after negotiating the guilty plea.
During the interrogation, Ennah said it was discovered that mutilated high denomination note packets like N1000 and N500 were mixed with N100 notes, and added that sometimes, when the CBN thought it had been disbursed around N10bn, an amount of money much smaller was actually destroyed.
This, he said, meant that mutilated bills destined for destruction remained in circulation.
He also said that a box containing mutilated bills of N10m was found to contain newspapers.
Ayodele Adeyemi's lawyer, Michael Lana, said that from Ennah's statement, the CCTV in the treasure room was not working at that time and Ennah should be worried that he would not tell her.
He also asked Ennah if he was not surprised that a controller from a CBN department asked them to contribute money to compensate for the missing amount when one of the frauds was discovered.
Defense prosecutor Tayo Olukotun lamented that the cross-examination of witnesses by the defense lawyer was ambiguous, as it went beyond the statement made by Ennah and was admitted by the court as evidence.
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