A new revelation from the investigative committee set up by President Bola Tinubu has revealed the misappropriation of 3 trillion naira in COVID loans.
Top sources privy to the findings made by the committee said the whopping amount was made from two projects, COVID loans and the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme Fund alone.
In July 2023, the President, named the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Jim Obazee, as the special investigator to probe the apex bank.
The committee, which only reports to the President was tasked to investigate CBN and key Government Business Entities.
The appointment of Obazee came over a month after Tinubu suspended Emefiele as the CBN governor.
Shortly after his suspension in June, Emefiele was arrested and taken into custody by Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS).
The investigation’s latest discoveries are among other atrocities committed as the head of the apex bank.
In addition, it was learnt that Obazee’s committee was pushing to have an interim report submitted to President Tinubu soon so that he would understand how grave and massive corruption at the CBN under Emefiele.
A source close to the matter said “Obazee’s committee is pushing to have an interim report submitted to Tinubu as a way of letting him understand the gravity of Emefiele’s financial crimes and how bad it set Nigeria’s finances back.
“The committee is asking that they should be allowed to submit an interim report so as to stop any attempt by Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation’s office to settle his case on the basis of N50 billion refund plea bargain as earlier exposed.”
In his nationwide broadcast on Sunday morning as part of the programme of events to mark Nigeria’s 63rd Independence anniversary celebration, President Tinubu confirmed that findings on past lapses in the apex bank would soon be out.
In his address, Tinubu pledged a thorough housecleaning of the den of malfeasance the CBN had become. Saying that housecleaning was well underway.
Emefiele was set to be released from detention by the Department of State Services (DSS) after his plea bargain with President Tinubu’s administration had been concluded.
However, the AGF and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on Sunday denied reaching any non-prosecution bargain with Emefiele.
Emefile and some of his associates were expected to be arraigned over N6.9 billion procurement fraud at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in August but the arraignment had stalled.
Allegedly, a non-prosecution plea bargain for Emefiele was being premised upon the former governor’s willingness to return N50 billion which he had corruptly amassed.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.