Officers of the Economic
and Financial Crime Commission on Monday arrested 21 bankers including senior
executives of the Central Bank of Nigeria for the theft of $33 million worth of
defaced naira currency notes.
The fraud, which is widely
suspected to have gone unchecked for some years now, was blown via a
petition to the EFCC alledging that over 6,575,549,370 naira was cornered and
discreetly recycled by light-fingered top executives of the CBN with the help
of top officials in some commercial banks too.
The Economic and Financial Crime
Commission said a whistle-blower alerted it to the "mega scam."
Among the suspects are officers
from eight commercial banks in Nigeria, including bank leaders Ecobank and Zenith
Bank, it said.
The fraud involved using cut-up
pieces of newspaper to replace notes in Nigeria's naira currency that had been
designated for destruction at the Central Bank. It charged the commercial bank
officers then helped put the defaced and mutilated notes back into circulation.
Those arrested will be presented
at the federal high court this week on five counts, a report said.
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