The State Security Service (SSS) alleges in court records that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been paying “unknown gunmen” and members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The documents fill in the gaps in the SSS’s terrorism financing claim against Mr Emefiele last December for the first time.
IPOB is a separatist organization that advocates for the secession of five Igbo-dominated states in South-east Nigeria, as well as parts of neighboring states, to form an independent Biafra republic.
The gang implicated for recent violent activities in the South-east region has been declared a terrorist organization and banned by a court since September 2017.
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The Nigerian media reported in December on the SSS’s fruitless attempt to seek an arrest warrant from the Federal High Court in Abuja for Mr Emefiele on a variety of charges, including terrorism financing.
After hearing from SSS’s legal team, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho, refused to grant the motion for an order against Mr Emefile.
The judge denied the application in a judgement issued on December 9, noting an error in the SSS’s application procedure.
The verdict was only made public 11 days after it was delivered by the court, according to the Nigerian media.
However, the papers did not go into depth about the agency’s serious charges against Mr Emefiele.
PREMIUM TIMES has obtained court files from the SSS detailing the agency’s charges against the CBN governor, eight weeks after the decision was issued.
The SSS accused him of disrupting the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, financing terrorists, assisting and abetting terrorism, and committing other economic crimes that jeopardized Nigeria’s national security.
The agency explicitly accused Mr Emefiele of mismanaging the CBN subsidiary, NISRAL, as well as the central bank’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.
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On December 7, a team of four lawyers from the SSS’s legal section filed a complaint against Mr Emefiele.
However, contrary to earlier reports that the appeal sought an arrest warrant for Mr Emefiele, it really asked authority to keep Mr Emefile for 60 days in order to complete an ongoing investigation into his alleged atrocities.
The application was submitted as an ex parte move, which means that Mr Emefile was not served with it.
It was backed up by an affidavit signed by an SSS official, Umar Salihu, summarizing the findings of the investigations into the serious offences Mr Emefiele allegedly committed.
The deponent said “there is reasonable suspicion that the respondent (Mr Emefiele) was involved in terrorism financing, aiding and abetting acts of terrorism, economic crimes of national security dimension and for undermining the security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said the agency needed to apply to the court “for an order enabling the applicant to detain the respondent for sixty days, pending the conclusion of ongoing investigation …”
On the need for the court to issue the order, he said Mr Emefiele “is a man of means and can easily evade arrest and interfere with ongoing investigation if he is released on bail.”
Citing “credible intelligence”, the deponent mentioned some specific allegations over which the agency was investigating Mr Emefiele.
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The claims in the application are vague and offer no insight into the CBN governor’s motivation for supporting IPOB and other terrorists’ actions.
The SSS accused Mr Emefiele of sponsoring terrorism, unknown gunmen terrorizing the South-east region, the IPOB and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network, among other things (ESN).
The SSS said that Mr Emefiele sponsored them using cash raised for his unsuccessful presidential campaign last year as well as funds misappropriated from government coffers.
Mr Emefiele, as the current governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), ran unsuccessfully for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket last year. Images of his branded automobiles and other campaign materials circulated on the internet in the run-up to the party’s primary election.
He also applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja for an order confirming his right to run for the APC ticket.
However, on May 9, the court denied Mr Emefiele’s request.
In a December file, Nigeria’s intelligence agency stated that Mr Emefiele “procures a number of vehicles and disburses monies for his bungled presidential ambition.”
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It added that “the said funds and vehicles are being channelled into funding of Unknown Gunmen, Eastern Security Network (ESN) and elements of IPOB, a proscribed organisation.”
In addition, the agency said Mr Emefiele, “on several occasions in actions prejudicial to the security of the Nigerian state,” engaged in “criminal conspiracy to divert government resources into suspicious acts of terrorism financing”.
It said the actions of the CBN governor were “meant to subvert and sabotage” the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Despite the gravity of the charges from the government’s primary intelligence agency, Mr Buhari has continued to meet with Mr Emefiele one-on-one since December.
This raises doubts about whether the president believes the SSS obtained “credible intelligence” on the nation’s top banker.
The SSS, which is at the vanguard of the government’s efforts to repress separatist activities throughout the country, was holding IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu in custody in December when it linked Mr Emefiele to the funding of the outlawed group.
The Presidency, the SSS, and Mr Emefiele have all declined to comment on the claims.
Mr Emefiele was also accused by the SSS of “fraud, money laundering, round tripping, and conferment of pecuniary benefit to self and others.”
According to the SSS, Mr Emefiele is allegedly complicit in the mismanagement of different government interventionist monies under his authority.
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The SSS accused Mr Emefiele of mismanaging funds from the Social Investment Programme (NISRAL) and the Anchor Borrowers Scheme.
The two agencies are interventionist programs aimed at increasing food output and encouraging farmers.
Mr Emefiele was also accused of mismanaging “other critical economic sectors of the economy,” according to the SSS.
The SSS also stated it was on the trail of members of a crime syndicate, of which Mr Emefiele is supposedly a member.
It said “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.”
The agency accused Mr Emefiele of aiding and abetting terrorism, and alleged further that he used proxies from his alleged syndicate “to carry out his illegal economic crimes of national security dimension with potent threat to the country’s security.”
However, in dismissing SSS’ motion on December 9, 2022, the judge, Mr Tsoho, pointed out a weakness in the agency’s protocol for requesting an order for Mr Emefiele’s custody for 60 days.
He said that the secret police request should have been preceded by the suspect’s arrest, which did not require a court warrant.
“This is not the situation here, as Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor was shown on television, even last night, having an audience with the President of Nigeria,” the judge said. “It therefore seems that the applicant intends to use the court as a cover for an irregular procedure which is unacceptable.”
The judge said “an application of this kind (by the SSS) should have evidence of the approval of the respondent (Emefiele’s) boss (President Buhari), that such measures are authorised to be taken,” owing to the “sensitive position” he “occupies…as one of the key drivers of the nation’s economy.”
“I decline to grant this application ex parte,” the judge declared.
Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said the SSS’ allegations against Mr Emefiele robs Nigeria of investors’ confidence in the economy.
“Nobody will want to do business with your country when the head of the Central Bank is a terrorism suspect,” the senior lawyer said in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES,
Similarly, Mr Emefiele’s predecessor, former Kano Emir Lamido Sanusi, was accused of terrorism financing by the Goodluck Jonathan-led regime in 2014 and ousted from office, according to Mr Falana.
Olisa Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), also praised the judge for dismissing what he called “the worthless plea by the SSS to arrest the CBN governor.” He urged the secret police to sue Mr Emefiele if “there is evidence.”
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Mr Emefiele’s entry into politics last year, when he ran for the APC presidential ticket while still serving as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, garnered widespread censure from Nigerians.
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