The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied the allegation that one hundred and fifty billion naira is missing in its vaults in 2018 and has threatened legal action against its accusers.
The audiotape of a conversation between the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, the deputy governor of the bank, Adamu Lamatek, and other top officials of the bank was leaked on Sunday. The men could be heard having a conversation about how to reconcile the apex bank’s balance sheet.
In statement on Sunday by the bank’s Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, the apex bank said the one hundred and fifty billion naira which was reported as stolen from its coffers was part of a six hundred and fifty billion naira loan to states in 2015 in order to ensure that Nigerian workers got their salaries.
He explained further that “in closing the Bank’s 2018 accounts, external auditors in their Draft Account, erroneously classified about N150 billion of these loans as bad, which negatively affected the Bank’s Balance Sheet and shareholders fund.”
According to Okoroafor, “the selective conversation being circulated was simply a discussion to ascertain why the auditors took that position and next steps to resolving it. Okoroafor assured that “the integrity of the CBN Governor remains unassailable, noting that Emefiele has no account in Dubai or anywhere in the world and would never convert the funds of CBN for personal use.
Okoroafor urged Nigerians to disregard the audio and continue to trust that the Bank is doing everything it could to represent their interests in the best possible way.
Join our twitter community :