Nigeria wants Interpol to help catch three people who they think stole $6. 2million from the central bank. They used a fake signature of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Officials think that the suspects planned with Godwin Emefiele, who used to be in charge of Nigeria’s central bank.
He is already in court for 20 charges, including getting$6. 2m
Mr Emefiele said he did not do anything wrong and is not in jail right now.
He is the most well-known former government official to be accused of taking bribes since President Bola Tinubu started working last year.
Prosecutors say that Mr Emefiele broke the law by allowing the money to be taken from the central bank vault.
Last December, he said that the accusations were completely untrue and were made up by the investigator to hurt his reputation. He asked for a complete and clear investigation.
Mr Emefiele’s supposed helpers are named Adamu Abubakar, Imam Abubakar, and Odoh Ocheme. Odoh Ocheme used to work for the central bank. This information was reported by the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria.
The police think the suspects have left Nigeria. They want Interpol to help catch them and send them back to Nigeria.
None of the three people accused of doing something wrong have said anything about the accusations.
The government told the police to arrest them on Tuesday night. This happened a few hours after Boss Mustapha, a former official in President Buhari’s government,spoke in Mr Emefiele’s trial.
Mr Mustapha said in court in Abuja that neither he nor Mr. Buhari had signed to allow the $6. 2million to be taken out.
“Looking at the signature, it is a faint attempt at reproducing [former] President Buhari’s signature,” Mr Mustapha was quoted as telling the court by the Nation newspaper.
When Mustapha saw the paper used to take out the money, he said it “did not come from the president’s office”, the newspaper reported.
The money was taken out in cash in January last year, a few months before Mr. Buhari finished his time in office.
Mr Emefiele became the head of the central bank in 2014 when Good luck Jonathan was the president. In2019, Buhari chose to keep him in that position.