A director at the Federal Ministry of Finance has told an Abuja court that the ministry has no record of a N124.86 billion withdrawal from the Central Bank of Nigeria and did not authorise the transaction.
Ali Mohammed, who testified as the 10th prosecution witness in the trial of former CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, said neither the ministry nor the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation knew about the debit.
He spoke on Monday, October 6, before Justice Maryanne Anineh of the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja.
How The N154bn Inquiry Became N124.86bn
Mohammed, a director overseeing the Department of Home Finance, said the issue came to his attention after the ministry received a letter from a special investigation team probing CBN transactions.
The letter initially flagged a transaction of about N154 billion. Upon internal review, officials traced the specific transaction under query to a N124.86 billion debit from the Consolidated Revenue Account domiciled at the CBN.
Internal Checks Found No Record
According to Mohammed, his department supervises three divisions – State and Public Finance, Trade, and Banking and Other Financial Institutions. Because of the nature of the inquiry, he immediately contacted all three to confirm if any had knowledge or documentation relating to the withdrawal.
The State and Public Finance Investment Division was of particular interest because it is the unit that handles matters involving the Central Bank of Nigeria and federal fiscal operations.
Mohammed told the court that none of the three divisions had any record of the transaction. No file, no approval, and no directive relating to the N124.86 billion withdrawal was found within the ministry.
OAGF Also Denies Knowledge
Following that internal check, the witness said he escalated the matter to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, which is the agency constitutionally responsible for managing federal government payments and withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
He said he wrote through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance to the Accountant-General, asking for confirmation of whether the office authorised or was aware of the debit.
The response, according to Mohammed, was clear. The Office of the Accountant-General also had no knowledge of the N124.86 billion transaction and had not issued any instruction for it.
That response formed the basis of the ministry’s reply to the special investigators. The ministry subsequently forwarded its position, along with the correspondence from the Accountant-General’s office, to the investigation team.
What The Documents Show
At Monday’s hearing, the prosecution tendered certified true copies of the letters exchanged between the ministry, the OAGF and the investigators. The defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, did not oppose their admission, and Justice Anineh admitted them as evidence.
Explaining the documents, Mohammed told the court that the records show the Federal Ministry of Finance was not aware of the withdrawal. He said the transaction was described in the documents as a direct debit by the Central Bank of Nigeria, meaning the money was taken without recourse to another government office.
He stressed that under normal government procedure, any withdrawal from the Consolidated Revenue Fund must be backed by an instruction that passes through the Office of the Accountant-General. In this case, he said, no such instruction existed.
His testimony is central to the prosecution’s argument that the N124.86 billion debit was carried out without the required fiscal approvals.
Link To Earlier CBN Testimony
The evidence builds on earlier testimony given by Hamisu Abdullahi, Director of Banking Services at the CBN, who appeared as the ninth prosecution witness.
Abdullahi had told the same court in May that N124.86 billion was debited from the Consolidated Revenue Account during Emefiele’s tenure at the apex bank. According to his testimony, the funds were used to settle what he described as internal CBN debts accumulated from government-related directives.
He said the money was distributed among several accounts, including a pilgrimage subsidy account and the Federal Government receivable account. He also testified that there was no presidential approval or National Assembly appropriation for the debit.
While Abdullahi’s evidence focused on how the money was moved inside the CBN and where it went, Mohammed’s testimony focused on whether the fiscal authorities outside the CBN knew about or authorised it.
Together, the two accounts present the prosecution’s version of a transaction done entirely within the CBN without the knowledge of the Finance Ministry or the Accountant-General.
The Trial And What Comes Next
Emefiele’s trial is being heard as part of a separate case linked to the controversial 2022/2023 naira redesign policy and other financial transactions during his time as CBN Governor.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting him on a four-count charge marked CR/264/2024, which includes allegations of disobedience to lawful directives and acts said to have caused injury to the public. The former CBN Governor has denied all the allegations and is pleading not guilty.
At Monday’s proceedings, the prosecution also concluded the testimony of Hamisu Abdullahi. The CBN director confirmed an email from the bank’s system which he said conveyed a directive from Emefiele concerning the recovery of N1.4 billion from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The email and its certificate of compliance were admitted by the court without objection from the defence.
The trial has continued to attract public attention because of the scale of the amount involved and the implications for fiscal discipline. The Consolidated Revenue Account is the main federal account where government revenues are held, and any withdrawal from it is expected to follow strict constitutional and financial regulations, including approvals and documentation through the Finance Ministry and the Accountant-General’s office.
The prosecution is seeking to establish that those procedures were bypassed in the N124.86 billion transaction. The defence will have an opportunity to test that claim during cross-examination.
Justice Anineh adjourned the case to Tuesday, October 7, for cross-examination of Ali Mohammed and continuation of trial.
For now, the fact before the court is that two key fiscal institutions – the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General – say they have no record of authorising the N124.86 billion CBN withdrawal now under scrutiny.
