The federal government has reduced the criminal charge preferred against former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele.
The government in August 2023 filed a 20-count charge bordering on procurement fraud against Emefiele.
The former apex bank governor was charged alongside Sa’adatu Yaro, a female employee of CBN, and her company, April 1616 Investment.
His arraignment has been stalled three times and on Wednesday, it was again stalled due to the nationwide strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Although the amended charge marked CR/577/2023, still borders on procurement fraud, the counts have been reduced to six with Emefile as the sole defendant.
Also, the purported procurement fraud’s value was reduced from N6.9 billion to N1.2 billion.
Emefiele was accused of using his position to confer a corrupt advantage on Yaro by awarding a contract for the procurement of 43 vehicles worth N1.2 billion between 2018 and 2020.
They include 37 Toyota Hilux Vehicles at the cost of N854.7 million, one Toyota Avalon at the cost of N99.9 million.
Others are one Toyota Landcruiser V8 at the cost of N73.8 million, two Toyota Hilux Shell Specification Vehicles at the cost of N44,200,000.
It was alleged that he awarded Yaro a contract for the procurement of two Toyota Landcruiser VXR V8 worth 138 million.
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