By Adedapo Adesanya
Mr Kingsley Obiora, a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of Economic Policy, is reportedly in the net of the Department of Security Service (DSS).
It was widely reported that Mr Obiora has now spent four nights in custody under questioning by the security service.
It is believed that this is a wider part of allegations of financial mismanagement under the embattled and suspended governor of the apex bank, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who is also in custody of the nation’s secret police.
Mr Emefiele, who was first appointed as CBN governor in June 2014, has been in SSS since June 10, 2023, a day after he was controversially removed from office by President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Tinubu, in late July, appointed a special investigator, Mr Jim Obazee, to probe the CBN and other federal agencies.
Recall that Mr Emefiele is in court over allegations of conferring corrupt advantages on Mrs Sa’adatu Yaro, a director in April 1616 Investment Limited.
The offence, according to the DSS, which arraigned him, is contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000, which states that, “Any public officer who uses his office or position to gratify or confer any corrupt or unfair advantage upon himself or any relation or associate of the public officer or any other public officer shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for five years without an option of fine.”
In the charges signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abubakar; Deputy Director, Public Prosecution, Mrs Nkiru Jones-Nebo; and eight other ministry officials, the accused persons were alleged to have bought a fleet of over 98 exotic vehicles and armoured buses valued at about N6.9 billion.
Some of the vehicles bought between 2018 and 2020 included 84 Toyota Hilux vehicles, 10 armoured Mercedes Benz buses, three Toyota Landcruisers and one Toyota Avalon car.
Mr Emefiele was said to have also conferred a corrupt advantage on Mrs Yaro by awarding a contract for the supply of one Toyota Avalon at the cost of N99.9m to her company, April 1616 Investment Ltd., in 2019.
The suspended governor was also accused of awarding a contract for the supply of another Toyota Landcruiser V8 for N77.050 million to the third defendant in 2018.
The ex-CBN governor was said to have conspired with Mrs Yaro to confer corrupt advantages on the CBN staffer by awarding her a contract for the supply of two Toyota Hilux Shell specification vehicles at the cost of N44.2 million sometime in 2020.
He was further alleged to have awarded another contract to Mrs Yaro and her firm for the purchase of one Toyota Landcruiser VXR valued at N96 million in 2020.
The case has since stalled.
Modupe Gbadeyanka