A FEDERAL High Court in Abuja has been told that Odoh Ocheme, an aide to former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele, and others named in the theft of $6,230,000 cash from the CBN are currently residing in the United Kingdom (U.K).
A police prosecutor, Celestine Odo, revealed this in the court when an eight-count of theft pending against them was mentioned on Thursday.
The others who are non-staff members of the apex bank are Adamu Abubakar and Imam Abubakar.
Odo recalled that the court had on February 7, 2024, issued an arrest warrant on the trio and that the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) was notified.
“They are in the UK. Until they are pinned down and arrested, we cannot bring them before the court. We are relying on the cooperation of INTERPOL member states to achieve this,” he said.
The Police prosecutor subsequently applied for an adjournment to enable the INTERPOL to explore available options for their arrest.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, who was uncomfortable with the explanation, threatened to strike out the case on the next adjourned date should Odo repeat the excuse.
He adjourned till November 3 for the arraignment of the defendants.
A document filed along with the charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/19/2014, provided insight into how the $6,230,000 was allegedly stolen on February 8, 2023 and shared.
A special presidential investigative team led by Jim Obaze, which probed Emefiele’s tenure, claimed that the money was stolen to pay election observers.
Investigators revealed, in the court document, that the alleged theft was an insider job by mainly CBN officials with the connivance of the two Abubakars.
Ocheme, who was described in the document as a personal assistant to Emefiele allegedly received$3,730,000 out of the $6.23 million from the money. The remaining $2,500,000 was shared by others.
That Adamu Abubakar (now at large), Imam Abubakar (now at large), Odoh Eric Ocheme (now at large) Bashirudeen Maishanu and others (also now at large), on or about the 23’ day of January, 2023, at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, forged a letter dated 23 January, 2023 purportedly written by Muhammad Buhari to the Mr Boss Mustapha, with the intent that the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja Branch may in the belief that the documents are genuine be induced to pay you $6,230,000.00 and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1(2)[c] of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap. M17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2010; and
*That Adamu Abubakar (now at large), Imam Abubakar (now at large), Odoh Eric Ocheme (now at large), Bashirudeen Maishanu and others also now at large, on or about the 23rd day of January 2023, at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, forged a letter dated 26th January 2023 purportedly written by Boss Mustapha to Mr Godwin Emefiele as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, with the intent that the CBN, Abuja branch believe that the documents are genuine and be induced to pay you $6,230,000.
That Adamu Abubakar (now at large), Imam Abubakar (now at large), Odoh Eric Ocheme (now at large), Bashirudeen Maishanu and others (also now at large) on or about the 23rd day of January 2023, at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja Branch, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, by false pretence that one man who held out himself as Jibril Abubakar is a staff of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and had approval of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to source money from the Central Bank of Nigeria for foreign Election Observers, and with intent to defraud, obtained $6,230,000 from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja branch and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)[a] and punishable under Section 1(3) & Section 10 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, Cap. A6 laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2010.’’