A Federal Ministry of Finance official has told the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja that the ministry and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation were unaware of the withdrawal of N124.86 billion by the Central Bank of Nigeria during Godwin Emefiele’s tenure as governor.

Ali Mohammed, a director in the Ministry of Finance, gave the testimony on Tuesday while appearing as the 10th prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of the former CBN governor.

Emefiele is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over allegations linked to the implementation of the naira redesign policy, with the case before Justice Maryanne Anineh at the FCT High Court in Maitama.

Led in evidence by EFCC counsel, Abbas Mohammed, the witness said the ministry became aware of the transaction after receiving an inquiry from a team investigating the withdrawal of funds by the apex bank.

Mohammed told the court that he contacted three divisions under his supervision to establish whether they had any knowledge of the N124.86 billion transaction.

According to him, none of the divisions was aware of the withdrawal.

He subsequently wrote, through the permanent secretary, to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to determine whether the office had authorised or was aware of the transaction.

The witness said the OAGF replied that it was not aware of the transaction and described it in its records as a direct debit by the CBN.

Explaining the meaning of “direct debit” to the court, Mohammed said it meant that the money was withdrawn by the CBN without recourse to any other government office.

“Direct debit means it was withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria without recourse of any office in Nigeria,” he told the court.

The witness further explained that withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue Fund would ordinarily require the involvement or directive of the relevant government financial authorities.

He said the documents before the court did not show that the Ministry of Finance had directed the OAGF to make the withdrawal.

The prosecution tendered correspondence between the Ministry of Finance and the OAGF, which was admitted in evidence after the defence raised no objection.

Earlier in the proceedings, Hamisu Abdullahi, a director of banking services at the CBN and the ninth prosecution witness, also continued his testimony.

Abdullahi was referred to an email generated from the CBN’s computer system concerning a directive from the then CBN governor to recover N1.4 billion in debit from a receivables account.

The prosecution tendered the email and its certificate of compliance, which were admitted as Exhibits AH1 and AH2.

Abdullahi was subsequently discharged from the witness box.

The court adjourned the proceedings until Wednesday for further cross-examination and continuation of the trial.

Ali’s testimony forms part of the prosecution’s case against Emefiele, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges.