The Economics and Financial Crimes Commission has cleared former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Chukwuma Soludo, of any fraudulent acts in the multimillion naira bribery scam in the printing of polymer nots for the apex bank.
Chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, at a press conference on Monday said that former Governor of the ex-bank was not found culpable in any way regarding investigations into allegations of bribery involving Securency Pty Ltd of Australia and officials of both the CBN and the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) Plc over the supply of polymer substrate to Nigeria.
Lamorde said it made an extensive investigation but found that Mr. Soludo had nothing to do with the matter.
According to him, the commission has since cleared the erudite economic professor who is credited with the landmark consolidation of banking industry in 2005.
Following the October 1, 2009 launch of the polymer bank notes in Nigeria, which saw the N5, N10, and N50 notes remade in polymer material as against the original paper version, a scandal broke that CBN and NSPM officials received bribes to effect the switch to polymer.
The EFCC in a move that generated media frenzy had in January 2013 summoned Mr. Soludo (as Governor of CBN and chairman of the Board of NSPM at the time the alleged offence was committed) to clarify matters and state what he knew about the matter.
The former CBN Governor consistently denied any wrongdoing.The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) hinged the disqualificatio of Soludo from aspiring to the governorship of Anambra on the premise that he was under inst
