The Department of State Services (DSS) has renewed its investigations to arrest and prosecute Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Accordingly, Emefiele is alleged to be involved in terrorism financing and fraud.
It was also alleged that the military is providing soldiers to protect him both at home and in the office, in a bid to scuttle his arrest. The defence headquarters has denied the allegation.
The DSS investigations as gathered, is centred into multiple allegations with a view to arresting Emefiele for possible prosecution following its earlier unsuccessful attempt at arresting the apex bank governor.
According to a recent media publication, some of the exclusive details it got from court documents on the controversy around the trail for Emefiele, include funding “unknown gunmen” and members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The Federal Government of Nigeria had proscribed IPOB, a separatist organisation that calls for secession and working for the establishment of Biafra republic.
Also, in the report, Emefiele was 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 apex bank 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.
Also, the secret government agency 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.”
Efforts to get his reaction on the allegations labelled against him by the DSS were not successful as his office did not respond to enquiries.
However, Emefiele 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.
Multiple sources revealed that the DSS is not relenting in unravelling all the suspicions around the CBN governor with a view to bringing him to book, Daily Trust reports.
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 the then-President Goodluck Jonathan in June 2014, after Sarah Alade served out the term of the suspended Lamido Sanusi.
