…as DSS begins grilling of suspended apex bank boss in custody
. Top bank chiefs panic Emefiele may squeal, mention their names to interrogators
Following Saturday’s confirmation of the arrest, detention and grilling of the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele by the Department of State Services, fear has gripped the board members of the apex bank and the Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of many commercial banks in the country.
The eventual suspension, arrest, detention and interrogation of Emefiele by the DSS, it was learnt, is seen by the CBN directors, bank MDs and CEOs as a danger signal that the secret police may soon come after them too in its investigation of the forex allocations by the CBN since 2017.
This development was said to have, therefore, also created panic among the CBN directors and commercial bank chiefs on Saturday, who are now said to have become apprehensive that Emefiele may mention their names during interrogation with regard to forex allocations, one of the allegations leveled by the DSS against the suspended apex bank boss.
First News had reported in January this year how the DSS had summoned Emefiele, the other 10 members of the CBN Board of Directors, including the four deputy governors and six non-Executive Directors as well as the Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of 27 commercial banks in the country. They were all to appear before the DSS to answer questions on forex allocations from 2017 to date.
Emefiele, as the Chairman of the apex bank’s Board of Directors, was expected to lead other members of the Board to answer questions at the DSS Headquarters in Abuja.
However, the suspended CBN governor and the other Directors of the apex bank and the commercial banks CEOs, it was learnt, did not honour the DSS invitation.
Rather, Emefiele resorted to using the courts to stop the DSS from inviting, arresting and questioning him and the other concerned CBN directors and bank chiefs.
The CBN Board of Directors is statutorily empowered to deliberate and approve forex allocations based on requests, before disbursement.
However, DSS’ probe of the forex allocations, it was gathered was necessitated by the shocking discovery that forex allocations meant for particularly people in business and investments were not getting to those who really needed and applied for it, but have been ending up in the pockets of few privileged, influential and highly placed individuals, including Presidency officials under the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari and their acolytes.
It was gathered that preliminary report on forex allocations in the past six years under Emefiele as CBN Gov “is very shocking,” and according to a reliable source, “Nigerians as well as the international community will be surprised at what has been discovered.”
Earlier, Emefiele, through a Civil Society Organisation, Forum for Accountability and Good Leadership, had obtained a nocturnal fresh court injunction from a Federal Capital Territory High Court restraining the DSS from questioning and obtaining any information from CBN officials and the CEOs of the 27 commercial banks regarding Foreign Exchange allocations from 2017 to date. First News had obtained a copy of the court order granted by the Presiding Judge, Justice SB Belgore, who adjourned hearing of the motion on notice on the matter till January 25.
The embattled CBN Gov’s major reason for rushing to court at night, First News learnt, was to stop the commercial banks from releasing the details about forex allocations to the DSS.
But unknown to Emefiele, the DSS had, before the court granted the order, questioned and obtained documentary evidence from his deputies at CBN as well as from the 27 bank CEOs on forex allocations in the past six years, as several of the banks had also fully complied with the DSS’ request before the nocturnal injunction was granted by Justice Belgore.
But following Emefiele’s discovery that most of the commercial banks CEOs had complied with the DSS’ request on information concerning the matter, he summoned the banks’ MDs to Abuja for a “crucial meeting” on a Saturday, where he “strategised” with them on how to further deal with the invitation by the secret police.
At the Abuja meeting, First News reliably learnt, it was resolved that the remaining commercial banks that had yet to comply with the DSS’ request for information on forex allocations should “doctor their reports.”
First News had further learnt from reliable sources that the meeting with the DSS, the CBN officials and bank CEOs were to shed more light on the approvals of forex allocations to beneficiaries from 2017 to date.
They were also to submit the list of individuals and corporate organisations that had benefitted from the forex allocations so far.
The bank CEOs, it was further gathered, were also to supply the DSS a schedule of the investors and export window foreign exchange allocated to their individual banks from 2017 to date.
The commercial banks were to break the schedule into the amount of forex allocations given to them, list the name of the individual customer/or beneficiary and their purpose/criteria for getting the allocation.
They were also to supply the DSS the name of the authorised persons who allocated the forex and confirm whether it’s the CBN or the commercial banks themselves.
The commercial banks were also to give the secret police summary of the top 50 customers allocated the highest amount of forex and their order of importance.
Recall that the DSS had earlier accused Emefiele of allegedly aiding and abetting terrorism, insisting that the CBN Gov must be prosecuted for the alleged crimes.
According to the secret police, preliminary investigations revealed Emefiele’s involvement in various acts of terrorism financing, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.
But the embattled CBN boss continued to employ all means to escape arrest and interrogation by the DSS. He even had to delay his return to Nigeria after a trip abroad. He was also said to have then engaged some close associates of former President Buhari to help him to prevail on the DSS to let him off the hook. The suspended CBN governor was also alleged to have employed propaganda through organised public protests and demonstrations by CSOs, all in a bid to stop his investigations by the DSS.
In March, a coalition of 259 Civil Society Organisations had urged the then president Buhari to order Emefiele to aside from his office and surrender himself to the security agencies for thorough investigation.
According to the CSOs, it had become imperative for Emefiele to surrender himself for questioning following allegations of terrorism financing leveled him by the DSS.
But a nephew and close confidant of former President Buhari, Mamman Daura and immediate past Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai were said to have been the arrowheads of the highly influential and powerful politicians then pressuring the DSS DG, Yusuf Bichi to let go of Emefiele, resulting in the inability of the secret police to arrest and interrogate the apex bank boss on the allegations leveled against him throughout the tenure of the immediate past administration.
