Eric Odoh Ocheme, former Personal Assistant to the immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Goodwin Emefiele, has asked the security agencies to stop mentioning his name in the alleged forgery of signatures for the withdrawal of $6.2m from the apex bank to pay 2023 election observers.
Ocheme, a former staff member of CBN, stated this in reaction to the recent request by the Federal Government for INTERPOL to place him and two other faceless suspects on its red notice, over the alleged forgery of documents/signatures to move $6.2m from the CBN.
The Special Investigator appointed by President Bola Tinubu to probe cases of fraud in the Emefiele-led CBN, Jim Obazee, wrote INTERPOL to arrest the trio of Ocheme, an ex-aide to the former CBN governor Emefiele; Adamu Abubakar, and Imam Abubakar.
The letter with reference number CR:3000/TSI/ABJ/VOL.1/85 and dated February 12, 2024, was addressed to the IGP and signed by the Head of Operations, Office of the Special Investigator, DCP Eloho Okpoziakpo reads: “In the course of the Special Investigator’s assignment, Mr Odoh Eric Ocheme, (a former staff of the CBN) and the other two accomplices, were discovered to have conspired and forged documents in the name of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria with which they stole about US$6,230,000 in cash from the coffers of the CBN.”
But reacting in a statement, Ocheme insisted that he was just a Personal Assistant to the former CBN Governor, hence not involved in any business transactions of the apex bank and wondered why his name was being mentioned in the case.
Ocheme, who expressed doubt on the real identity of the people he has been tagged along with and placed on INTERPOL’s red alert, queried why only his photograph was being displayed in the media.
“I was the PA to the governor. I don’t get involved in any payment process. I don’t know all those people they are claiming we forged the signatures together . Who really are Adamu Abubakar and Imam Abubakar?”
“Why am I the only one whose face and picture is being paraded in the media space? The other two people whom I’m being put on Interpol list with, do they really exist? Who are they?
“Is it a crime to be an aid to a senior government official ? Not a dime of such illegal fund did they find in my account ever. Why is my name being dragged everywhere?”
