Mutilated N900m notes not tampered with —EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has dismissed reports alleging that mutilated N900 million notes recovered from Central Bank officials currently being prosecuted before the Federal High Court, Ibadan, had been tampered with by operatives of the commission.

It said that the reports which supposedly emanated from the October 4 court proceedings claimed that the trial judge, Justice P.I Ajoku discovered that operatives had tampered with the boxes containing the money.

But the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement in Abuja on Monday, insisted that the narrative was calculated to mislead the public.

“At no time during the proceedings did Justice Ajoku accuse the commission of tampering with any box. The only order made by the court was for the EFCC to produce the 106 boxes containing the mutilated currencies as evidence.

“How the order to produce the boxes turned into an indictment for tampering with N900m only exists in the warped imagination of the purveyors of the false report,” the statement said.

Uwujaren said the mastermind of the false story betrayed their motives by calling on the international community to be present at the adjourned sitting of the court on December 2 and 3,2019 “to witness the gross corruption by those employed by the government to curb corruption.”

He noted, “The EFCC is not fazed by such rant neither is it losing sleep over the order by Justice Ajoku. For the benefit of the public, the boxes in question have never been in the custody of the commission, let alone officers of the EFCC having the opportunity to pilfer its content.”

Uwujaren explained that the boxes were securely locked up in Central Bank vaults, adding that they had never been removed from the facility while the investigation into the alleged stealing of mutilated notes meant for destruction by CBN employees in Ibadan branch lasted.