A total of 20 people are said to have been questioned by the special investigators that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered to look into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its former governor, Godwin Emefiele.
The four deputy governors of the apex bank, a few directors, and a few drivers, including Emefiele’s driver, reportedly underwent questioning.
The drivers were reportedly questioned because “they were the ones who carried the big men around,” and “many directors, especially the ones directly under the deputy governors were interviewed,” according to one source.
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“They have also invited officials of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), and those in charge of all those intervention programmes were also invited.”
As part of their investigation, the special investigators quietly visited the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc) on Friday. They also invited a few representatives from the NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) to testify.
According to sources, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria’s (FRC) Executive Secretary, Shuaib Ahmed, and his deputy, Iheanyi Anyahara, were interrogated over the creation of the CBN’s audited financial accounts for the years 2016 to 2022.
One source said: “Some of those summoned are detained till the following day if their interrogation takes longer than anticipated or if they need some documents from their office and they did not bring them along. They will be detained while they send for the documents.
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“Also, if they are interrogating someone and he is being linked with someone else, the person is kept there till they invite the other person, and they will be interrogated separately.
“We can’t put a number to those invited yet. Let’s just say close to 20 have been invited.”
“Any director who has retired and has anything to do with the case will be invited. Even board members who have retired can be invited,” the source added.
The Department of State Services (DSS), which was part of the interagency committee that had jailed CBN deputy governors Aisha Ahmad and Kingsley Obiora, is conducting a parallel probe into the CBN.
The source said: “The DSS investigative team is different from Obaze’s team.
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“What I don’t understand is where they submit their own report. Or do they just want to keep it for their own (inter-agency) information since it is not stated anywhere who ordered them to do that?
“Everybody knows Obaze’s team gets its directives from the President.”
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