By Abimbola Ogunnaike
Based on allegations of terrorism financing and fraud, the Department of State Services (DSS) has intensified investigations with a view to arrest and prosecute the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
The DSS alleged that Emefiele funded Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB)/ESN with both funds he raised for his failed presidential bid last year and funds diverted from government coffers.
It also accused Emefiele of, “fraud, money laundering, round tripping and conferment of financial benefit to self and others,” just as 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.”
Efforts by thegazellenews.com to get the reaction of secret service on the planed arrest of the CBN Governor proved abortive.
An online platform, Premium Times, recently published some of the exclusive details it got from court documents on the controversy around the trial for Emefiele, among them funding, “unknown gunmen” and members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In the report by the online medium, Emefiele was also accused of sabotaging the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, financing terrorism, aiding and abetting terrorism, and committing other economic crimes with effect of undermining Nigeria’s national security.
It also accused the CBN Governor of mismanaging the CBN subsidiary, NIRSAL, and the Central Bank’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.
The Federal Government had banned IPOB, a separatist organisation that is championing secession from Nigeria and working for the establishment of Biafra Republic.
Its members had killed hundreds of civilians and security operatives in the last few years and burnt symbols of authority like police and military formations, Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) offices, among others.
Emefiele had contested for presidential ticket on the platform of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) last year. 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 wrong doing.
The CBN boss also rushed to 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.
Emefiele, who has been CBN 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 the then-President Goodluck Jonathan in June 2014, after Sarah Alade served out the term of the suspended Lamido Sanusi, now Emir of Kano.
