The Department of State Services (DSS) has stepped up investigations with a view to arrest and prosecute the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over allegations of terrorism financing and fraud, Daily Trust reports.
The newspaper said the secret police has renewed its investigations into multiple allegations with a view to arresting Emefiele for possible prosecution, following an earlier unsuccessful attempt.
An online platform, Premium Times, recently published some of the exclusive details it got from court documents on the controversy around the trail for Emefiele, among them funding “unknown gunmen” and members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The federal government had proscribed IPOB, a separatist organisation that calls for secession and working for the establishment of Biafra Republic.
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 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 secret government agency 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.”
Emefiele had sought the presidential ticket of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2022.
But 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.
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.
Daily Trust reported that multiple sources said the DSS is not relenting in unravelling all the suspicions around the CBN governor with a view to bringing him to book.
It said the DSS was discreetly continuing with investigations into the multiple allegations against Emefiele.
“The secret police is also said to be making an attempt at convincing President Buhari on the need to carry through with the investigations in view of the weighty nature of allegations against the CBN governor,” the newspaper reported.
