Diversion of stamp duty funds: Ignore court injunction, arrest Emefiele – Forum to DSS

The Concerned Northern Forum, CNF, has called on the Department of State Services, DSS, to ignore and immediately appealed the Federal High Court injunction and go ahead with its planned arrest of Mr Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, since his arrest in the interest of national security.

According to the forum: “The allegations by Mohammed Gudaji Kazaure concerning the misappropriation and diversion of stamp duty funds as well as other financial crimes require in-depth investigation. Financial crimes, including the diversion of public funds as alleged, run afoul of President Buhari’s anti-corruption posture and must not be tolerated by his appointee no matter how highly placed. Emefiele can’t be sitting as a CBN governor while these investigations continue. He needs to step aside to prevent any form of interference and undue influence.”

Spokesman of the forum, Comrade Abdulsalam Moh’d Kazeem, in a statement in Kaduna on Friday explained that Mr Godwin Emefiele should, as a matter of urgency, be relieved of his duties as the governor of the apex bank, as his integrity is already questioned, adding that he should be investigated accordingly and with immediate effect.

The forum opined that the CBN governor’s involvement in partisan politics and the alleged spurious investments he has made in some Nigerian banks made him unfit to continue in his position as they contravene the CBN Act and other extant laws, suggesting that he should be made to face the charges levelled against him in a competent court of law.

The forum called on the Director General of DSS to ignore the enemies of Nigeria and focus on the duties given to him by the Constitution, saying that national security is a serious issue and Nigerians cannot afford the country relapsing into insecurity because of mindless distractions.

The statement said that unravelling the role the CBN under Emefiele is allegedly playing in sponsoring terrorism would put paid to the endless and mindless killings and attacks all over the country.

The statement further explained: “As patriots who wish to always stand on the path of righteousness, we won’t take sides with those calling for the sack of the DSS boss but rather ask that he should be allowed to carry out his duties without interference by anybody, especially when it comes to the issue of national security and the general wellbeing of Nigerians. Those asking the DG to give details of Emefiele’s underhand dealings should know that security is a tactical issue and evidence can’t be made public so that criminals won’t be alerted and made to destroy evidence.”

The statement noted that the DSS, headed by its Director- General Yusuf Magaji Bichi has in the time past thwarted several security breaches with credible intelligence gathering and sharing amongst sister security agencies, adding that the DSS has issued many advisories in the interest of Nigeria and strongly called for calm even when the US had issued an advisory to its citizens in Nigeria alleging that organized terrorist attacks will soon attack the Federal Capital Territory.

It stated that the DSS equally obtained credible intelligence and issued warnings and security observations about an impending prison break attempt as was later witnessed with the jailbreak at the Kuje Maximum Security Prison. Therefore, there was no ground to second-guess the Service’s intelligence regarding the activities of the CBN governor.

The group further alleged that there are questions to ask regarding the CBN’s spending of 58.6 billion naira to print 2.5 billion naira notes at a time of financial difficulty.

“The cost of printing money can’t be more than the value of the money by almost 500%. Something is not right and must be unravelled. The whole idea of resigning and reprinting may have been a hoax to hoard and launder money without alerting Nigerians,” the forum further alleged.