The State Security Services (SSS) today invited two directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria for questioning as officials of Nigeria’s secret agency ramp up efforts to nail suspended CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
The invitation to the two CBN directors came a day after the Goodluck Jonathan administration withdrew the security detail of the ousted CBN governor. Mr. Sanusi, who is believed to still be in Lagos, has not stopped talking to local and foreign reporters since his removal last Thursday.
A source at the Presidency told SaharaReporters that Mr. Jonathan was upset about Sanusi’s outspokenness, especially the CBN Governor’s granting of interviews to the foreign media which continue to see his ouster as an audacious attempt by the government to cover up the missing $20 billion. Mr. Sanusi had told a panel of the National Assembly that the Nigerian National Oil Corporation had not deposited $20 billion of Nigeria’s crude oil earnings with the CBN. The embattled CBN Governor reportedly believes that the missing money was pocketed by cronies of President Jonathan.
The SSS has emerged as the weapon of choice in the government’s reprisal against Mr. Sanusi. A source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) confirmed that the anti-corruption agency was reluctant to get involved in the Sanusi case for fear of being accused of serving as an instrument used by Mr. Jonathan and Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke to cow Mr. Sanusi into submission.
Some agents of the EFCC have also reportedly received documents that detail suspicious transactions. The documents reportedly disclose how some cronies of Mr. Jonathan moved out huge sums of money from the NNPC crude sales.
Tomorrow, SSS agents are scheduled to interview the two CBN directors who received summons today.
A source at the Presidency revealed that the interrogation of the directors became necessary after it was discovered that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), whose report Mr. Jonathan relied upon in suspending Mr. Sanusi, had accepted some N500 million from the CBN and a few commercial banks to build an institute. Also, the council’s executive director, Jim Obazee, has a pending petition from an Abuja-based Public Interest Lawyers League (PILL). The petition accuses Mr. Obazee of sexually harassing a married Nigerian woman, Abimbola Patricia Yakubu.
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