The Department of State Services (DSS) has reportedly stepped up investigations in an effort to arrest and prosecute the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele on allegations bothering on terrorism financing.
In a Daily Trust report of Tuesday, February 21, 2023, the development has forced to be providing soldiers to protect the CBN governor both at home and office, so as to scuttle his arrest. The defence headquarters has, however, denied it.
Following its earlier unsuccessful attempt at arresting the apex bank governor, Daily Trust gathered that the secret police has renewed its investigations into multiple allegations with a view to arresting the embattled Emefiele for possible prosecution.
In a recent publication by Premium Times, details of the court documents reveal that Emefiele was also accused of sabotaging the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, financing terrorism, aiding and abetting terrorism, and committing other economic crimes with the effect of undermining Nigeria’s national security.
It also accused the apex bank Governor of mismanaging the CBN subsidiary, NIRSAL, and the central bank’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.
The DSS alleged that Emefiele funded IPOB/ESN with both the resources he raised for his failed presidential bid last year and funds diverted from government coffers.
The department also accused Emefiele of “fraud, money laundering, round tripping and conferment of financial benefit to self and others.”
It said he mismanaged various interventionist funds of the government under his control and concluded that “investigation is still ongoing on a wider scale as other members of the syndicate chain need to be identified and arrested to enable successful prosecution.”
It would be recalled that the CBN Governor in 2022, had vied for a presidential ticket on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but failed.
Efforts to get his reaction to the allegations labelled against him by the DSS were not successful as his office did not respond to enquiries.
However, the CBN governor had at the height of the controversy surrounding his political aspiration said that the presidential form and other logistics were bankrolled by his admirers and denied any wrongdoing.
He also approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to obtain an order affirming his right to jostle for the APC’s ticket. But the court on 9 May refused to grant Emefiele’s prayer.
According to multiple sources, DSS is not relenting in unravelling all the suspicions around the CBN governor with a view to bringing him to book.
Emefiele, who has been governor since 2014, is the first person to serve two terms as the head of Nigeria’s apex bank in nearly 20 years. He was first appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in June 2014, after Sarah Alade served out the term of the suspended Lamido Sanusi.
