The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has refuted claims by media reports alleging that the mutilated naira notes which are a sum of N900million naira and a subject of litigation and kept in the custody of the commission has turned into paper, calling the report false.
The Commission in a statement released on Monday, October 7th 2019, has this to say about the whole situation concerning the case:
“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to several online reports alleging that about N900 million (Nine Hundred Million Naira) of mutilated naira notes, being subject of prosecution at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, and kept in several boxes in EFCC’s custody has turned to paper. The report is very mischievous and a gross misrepresentation of facts of the matter.
It is imperative to note that the case was reported to the EFCC by the CBN in 2015 and the parties involved are currently in court.
In the course of investigations, EFCC operatives visited the CBN office in Ibadan to inspect the said boxes and discovered that the monies had been tampered with. This discovery was what informed the EFCC’s involvement in the case, resulting in the interrogation of suspects and subsequent prosecution”.
At no point were the boxes of the mutilated naira notes taken to the office of the EFCC.
One of the counts reads; “That you Patience Okoro Eye; Afolabi Olufemi Johnson; Ilori Adekunle Sunday; Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Muniru Adeola and Fatai Adedokun Yusuf on or about 5th August, 2014 in Ibadan within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, engaged in corrupt practices when you replaced the content of a box of N1,000 denomination in a total sum of N10, 000,000 (Ten Million Naira) marked as ” Counted Audited Dirty” meant for briquetting, with Newspapers and which sum you converted to your own use and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1(2) (a) and Section 10 (1) of the Recovery of Public Property (Special Provision) Act, Cap. R4, Laws of Federation Nigeria, 2014″.
At the last hearing, the Court mandated the EFCC to present them (the boxes) at the next hearing as evidence. This is a clear departure from the mischievous accounts of naysayers who erroneously misinterpreted the position of the court to claim that the boxes were tampered with by the EFCC” the statement said.