Forensic expert confirms Emefiele forged Buhari’s signature to withdraw $6.2m from CBN

A forensic document examiner, Bamaiyi Haruna, has said analysis of some documents used to release $6.2m from the Central Bank of Nigeria in February 2023 showed that the documents were forged.

Haruna, who is an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated this on Thursday at the resumed trial of the immediate-past , CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, before the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.

The EFCC, on June 18, 2023, arraigned Emefiele on amended 20 counts, in which he was accused of impersonating the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to illegally move $6.2m from the CBN vault.

The anti-graft agency also alleged that Emefiele, in January 2023, forged a document titled: “RE: PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE ON FOREIGN ELECTION OBSERVER MISSIONS,” dated 26 January 2023 with Ref No. SGF.43/L.01/201.

At the last adjourned date, a former Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, noted that the documents did not emanate from former President Mohammadu Buhari or his office.

Mustapha also told the court that the Federal Government had no business with foreign election observers.

Haruna, the sixth Prosecution Witness in the matter, stated that the real signatures of Buhari and the ex-SGF were analysed with the ones in the documents and were not the same.

He said, “The conclusion from the analysis revealed that the disputed documents showed evidence of forgery and copying art as the pen movement form and formation of the signatures and the skill of execution were found to be different from that of the specimen signatures A to A2 and B to B1.

“The form and formation of the signatures marked x and the specimen signature marked B to B1 were found to be different in respect of pen movement impulses, skill of execution, loop formation, and presence of tremors, there were individual characteristics.

“This is a confirmation that the author of the specimen signatures marked B to B1 does not rhyme with the signature of Buhari on the disputed document marked X.

“Initial and terminal strokes, loop formation, presence of tremors, and individual characteristics. This is also a confirmation that the author of the specimen signature marked A2 did not rhyme with the signature of Boss Mustapha on the disputed document marked X1.”

The prosecutor applied to the court to tender the forensic report dated January 25, 2024, and other documents attached as exhibits.

Emefiele’s lawyer, Mathew Burkaa (SAN), did not oppose.

Justice Hamza Muazu subsequently admitted them as evidence and marked them as Exhibits FDE.

During cross-examination by Burkaa, the witness urged the court to rely on his report.

When asked if Emefiele’s signature was analysed, he said no.

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