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Nigeria has requested Interpol’s assistance in apprehending three individuals accused of stealing $6.2 million from the country’s central bank by using a forged signature of former President Muhammadu Buhari. The suspects are believed to have colluded with former central bank chief Godwin Emefiele, who is already facing trial on multiple charges, including illegally receiving the stolen funds.
Emefiele, who has denied all charges and is currently out on bail, is accused of unlawfully authorizing the release of the money from the central bank vault. The alleged accomplices, Adamu Abubakar, Imam Abubakar, and Odoh Ocheme, a former central bank employee, are reported to have fled Nigeria, prompting the authorities to seek their arrest and extradition with the help of Interpol.
The government’s order to arrest the suspects came after Boss Mustapha, a senior official in ex-President Buhari’s administration, testified in Emefiele’s trial. Mustapha informed the court in Abuja that neither he nor Buhari had authorized the withdrawal of the $6.2 million, noting that the signature on the document was a “faint attempt at reproducing [former] President Buhari’s signature.”
The funds were withdrawn in cash in January last year, just before the end of Buhari’s term. Prosecutors allege that Emefiele falsified the document to request the funds, claiming they were intended for paying foreign election observers on behalf of Buhari.
Emefiele, who was appointed as central bank governor in 2014 by then-President Goodluck Jonathan and reappointed by Buhari in 2019, served in the position until President Bola Tinubu assumed office. The suspects have not yet commented on the allegations against them.
