Boss Mustapha, who served as the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) in the past, has disclaimed any connection to the fraud allegation against Godwin Emefiele, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Emefiele is being tried for allegedly transferring $6.230 million from the CBN account to a private account, under the guise of paying foreign election observers in 2023.
The prosecution claimed that Emefiele colluded with one Jubril Abubakar, who pretended to be a staff of the SGF office and the coordinator of a task force established by the federal government.
However, while appearing as the second prosecution witness on Monday, Mustapha said he was not aware of Abubakar or the transaction, and that his office did not issue any letter or memo to authorize the payment.
“Jubril is not my staff…There is no record of him,” Mustapha said.
“Not a dollar was brought to my office. No part of the money was brought to me.
“It is not the practice of the office of the SGF to send staff to any bank to collect money.”
Mustapha also said the federal government had no business with paying foreign election observers, as it was the responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said the issue was never discussed at the federal executive council (FEC) meeting held on January 18, 2023, contrary to the claim in the letter purportedly from his office.
“My role as the secretary to the council (FEC) is to prepare the agenda for the meeting. It was a 16-point agenda and there was no agenda that had to do with payment for foreign observers. So it could not have appeared in the conclusions,” he said.
He further said he did not sign any letter addressed to the CBN, and that the letter shown to him as exhibit PD6 did not emanate from his office.
He said the letter was defective, as it presupposed that there was a previous correspondence before it, and that it did not conform to the standard of his office.
He added that as a superior officer, he could not have referred to Emefiele as “dear sir”.
Earlier, during cross-examination, Ogbu Michael, a deputy director at the CBN who was formerly a branch controller at the time, told the court that he authorised the payment of the $6.230 million after the approval from the banking services department.
He said the money was paid in cash and was expected to be refunded in the second quarter of 2023.
He said he did not verify the identity card used for the payment of the money, as he followed the payment instructions.
He said the instruction was to pay with the ID indicated, which was a national ID card.
Hamza Muazu, the presiding judge, adjourned the matter to March 7, 11 and 25 for the continuation of trial.
