THE Department Of State Service (DSS) has arrested the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of economic policy, Kingsley Obiora this newspaper gathered.
Obiora has now spent four nights in custody under questioning by the security service, which has been looking into allegations of financial mismanagement under Godwin Emefiele, the ousted governor.
Emefiele, who was first appointed as CBN governor in June 2014, has been in DSS custody since June 10, 2023, a day after he was removed from office by President Bola Tinubu.
While two federal judges have ordered Emefiele’s release, the DSS has continued to find other grounds to hold him in custody, filing fresh charges to supersede earlier ones for which the top banker had been arraigned.
A source familiar with Obiora’s arrest said he was being pinned as a principal witness against his boss, although this newspaper has asked other sources to corroborate this.
Another top CBN ally, Abbas Masanawa was arrested and held in custody, as officials seek to determine the steepness of Emefiele’s alleged corruption.
This newspaper did not promptly hear back from the DSS and CBN about Obiora’s detention inquiry, which officials said was not entirely unexpected given his knowledge of CBN’s policy decisions.
Obiora, born March 6, 1976, was a policy chief at the International Monetary Fund and advised former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. He was also an adviser to Emefiele until March 2, 2020, when he was confirmed to his current position as one of CBN’s four deputy governors.
President Tinubu, in late July, appointed special investigators to probe the CBN and other federal agencies suspected of long fostering a culture of public graft. Jim Osayande Obazee resumed work in early August at CBN, officials told this newspaper.
