The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission may soon press multiple financial and economic charges against the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, following his transfer from the custody of the Department of State Services to the anti-graft agency.
A top source confirmed to Saturday Vanguard that the former CBN chief was formally handed over to the commission on Thursday night for necessary ‘action’ but did not say what action it was and when the action would begin.
But shortly after taking custody of the former CBN governor, operatives of the EFCC wasted no time in taking on Emefiele on his handling of the apex bank operations and multiple financial issues that now define his tenure.
Saturday Vanguard learnt that among the key issues for which the operations quizzed Emefiele, were the award of contracts running into billions of Naira to some persons said to be close to the bank, the redesign of the Naira notes just before the last general election and the disbursement of over N1.1 trillion by the apex bank under the controversial Anchor Borrower’s Programme.
Out of the N1.1 trillion sunk into the ABS, Saturday Vanguard learnt that only a little over N574 billion has been recovered while the Presidency has given an order that the balance must be recovered especially from commercial banks and a subsidiary of the CBN which took a large chunk of the cash but neither disbursed to ABS beneficiaries nor returned the principal money to the apex bank.
A source told Saturday Vanguard that although they took custody of Emefiele on Saturday night from the EFCC, he was going to be with them for some time to enable the operatives to get as much information as possible from the banker before deciding the next action to take on him.
One of the sources, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to issue any information on the matter, confirmed to our correspondent, saying, “Emefiele is currently in our custody. Remember that he was picked up by our operatives shortly after being released by the DSS on Thursday night.
“The former CBN boss is currently being interrogated in our Abuja office over sundry financial issues that dominated his tenure,” the source said but declined to give details.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that fresh charges were being prepared by the EFCC against Emefiele since the DSS appears to lack the locus to try him over alleged financial and economic sabotage during his tenure.
Efforts to speak with the Spokespersons of the EFCC, Mr Dele Oyewale, and that of the DSS, Dr Peter Afunanya, on the development, proved abortive as none of them could be reached at the time of filing the story last night.
It will be recalled that the ex-CBN governor had been in the custody of the DSS since June 9, 2023, following his suspension from office by President Bola Tinubu.
At that time, the DSS claimed Emefiele was being kept in its custody for what it called ‘some investigative reasons’ but later slammed him with a charge of illegal gun possession on July 25, 2023, in Lagos.
The DSS later withdrew the charge and the court on August 15, 2023, struck it out giving the impression that Emefiele was close to being freed only for a fresh 20-count charge to be filed against him by the Federal authorities.
