#CBNGate: 20 Persons, Including Deputy Governors, Directors, Grilled by Special Investigators

The special investigators appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have reportedly grilled no fewer than 20 persons connected to the apex bank and its former governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The Nation reported that among those interrogated were the four deputy governors of the CBN, some directors, and some drivers, including Emefiele’s driver.

A source said that the drivers were interviewed because “they were the ones who carried the big men around,” and that “many directors, especially the ones directly under the deputy governors, were interviewed.”

The source also said that some officials of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc), NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) were invited for questioning.

The source added that the Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), Shuaib Ahmed, and his deputy, Iheanyi Anyahara, were questioned in relation to the preparation of the CBN audited financial statements from 2016 to 2022.

The 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.

“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.

A parallel investigation of the CBN is being carried out by the Department of State Services (DSS) under the inter-agency committee, which had detained CBN deputy governors Aisha Ahmad and Kingsley Obiora.

The source said: “The DSS investigative team is different from Obaze’s team.

“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.”