Tensions are escalating faster than the public can guess in the financial circle as the determination of the current administration to bring to book, those found wanting in the past nine years under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is sending shockwaves through the system.
At the heart of the panic is Jim Obazee, who was on July 28, appointed “Special Investigator” of the CBN and related entities by President Bola Tinubu.
Whereas the terms of engagement of the ex-Chief Executive of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) are subjects of speculation, The Guardian understands that the team has been expanded significantly with members drawn from diverse fields of expertise in the financial sector with Obazee now serving as the anchor.
Independent sources privy to the activities of the team told our correspondent at the weekend that many officials of the Central Bank have been interrogated in the past few days even as the team is spreading its tentacles across the financial system.
Besides CBN, the team is also shining its searchlight on other institutions where CBN has substantial interests, particularly Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Limited and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems Plc.
The Presidency, through the Obazee-led team, is said to have started combing all relevant agencies for “co-conspirators” of the suspended CBN chief who had enriched themselves at the expense of the common good.
“In the coming weeks, heads will roll across the board. The level of rot seen in the system could not have been perpetrated by one man. If that is the case, those who work with him could not have been angels. I don’t know the scale of sanction that will follow but I can tell you that a lot of people will not go unpunished,” a source told The Guardian at the weekend.
The source also disclosed that some individuals who consult for the monetary authority had been detained in the past week and released on bail.
The newspaper could not independently confirm the claim. But most stakeholders who spoke on the issue said it was not unlikely considering the determination of the President to go the whole block on the subject.
As at 2015, PwC and Ernst & Young (E&Y) served as external auditors to the bank. PwC was replaced by KPMG in 2016. In the past seven years, the duo of E&Y and KPMG have provided the service for the regulator, certifying the financials that are now being reviewed by Obazee and his team.
According to the letter of appointment of Obazee, the Special Investigator reports directly to the Office of the President. But beyond workings of the appointment, a source who is privy to the engagement said the appointee has “reasonably easy” access to the President for regular briefing and that his team is now touted as the arrowhead of the Tinubu’s “commitment to fighting financial fraud”.
An insider source said the President is leaving nothing to chance in bringing those believed to have been involved in the financial system manipulation in recent years to justice and that he has charged the Obazee-led team to go all out against concerned individuals and institutions in its assignment.
Whereas the team does not have persecutory powers, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is said to have been properly briefed on the “importance and urgency” of the team and directed to work with it where necessary.
The Presidency has been reasonably quiet on the ordeal of the suspended CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele. The only time the President spoke on the issue, he described the financial system he supervised as “rotten”.
