The Governor of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has reportedly returned back to Nigeria upon completion of his leave break.
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Mr Emefiele has been out of the country for several weeks amidst fears he would be arrested by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) who are investigating several allegations against him, including corruption and terrorism financing.
According to PremiumTimes, Mr Emefiele returned to the country “secretly”. An approach not unconnected with the SSS arrest saga.
It is also reported by sources privy to his moves that Mr Emefiele is planning to leave the country again very soon, afraid the secret police could eventually arrest him amidst the continuous power play at the highest levels of the Nigerian government.
“He is trying to leave within the next few days on the pretence of attending the annual World Economic Forum,” one source said.
Recall that in December, TheNigeriaLawyer reported that the SSS secretly sought a court order to arrest Mr Emefiele. The Federal High Court, Abuja, however, rejected the SSS request.
In the application, the SSS wanted the court to order the arrest of the CBN governor over alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
The SSS filed the application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022 at the court on 7 December 2022. Mr Emefiele was the sole defendant in the suit which was filed ‘ex parte’, meaning Mr Emefiele was not notified of the suit.
But the judge, John Tsoho, in a 9 December ruling, rejected the application on the grounds that the secret police failed to provide sufficient evidence to warrant the issuance of an arrest warrant against Mr Emefiele.
Emefiele has been in the news for the wrong reasons in recent times.
Amidst the nation’s worsening economic situation, partly due to wrong CBN policies, including violations of its own laws,Emefiele decided to go into active politics while holding on to his office.
He not only jo ined the rulingAll Progressives Congress (APC) but sought to be the president of Nigeria on the party’s platform.
Although he got the APC nomination form, he had to pull out of the presidential race, after spending billions of naira including on publicity, due to public outrage and allegedly failing to secure President Buhari’s support for his ambition.
Emefiele has also faced criticisms for the CBN’s recent policy of redesigning the country’s highest currencies including N200, N500 and Nl1000
The apex bank also set January 31as the limit for the validity of the old naira notes.
However, a few weeks before the expiration of the deadline, Nigerians have continued to lament the implementation of the policy as the new notes are scarce while banks continue to issue the old notes.
Emefiele’s controversial absence from the nation has been a source of worry for stakeholders in the banking sector ahead of the CBN’s first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the year scheduled for January 23.
The CBN boss is the chairman of the MPC meetings in which key monetary policy decisions are taken as part of the apex bank’s efforts to control inflation, regulate banking operations, and stabilize the larger economy.
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