CBN Gov may shun DSS invitation on forex dealings
By Babar Ignatius
Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele may not honour invitation by the nation’s secret service flagship, Department of State Services (DSS). He is expected to report at the DSS Abuja headquarters today (Monday).
Emefiele and 10 other members of CBN Board of Directors were last weekend summoned by DSS. The 10 top officials of the apex bank include; the four deputy governors and six non-Executive Directors. They were invited alongside Chief Executive Officers/Managing Directors of 27 commercial banks in the country.
They are all to answer further questions on forex allocations from 2017 to date as the CBN Board of Directors is statutorily empowered to deliberate and approve forex allocations based on requests, before disbursement.
It was revealed that the DSS’ probe of the forex allocations was premised on the shocking discovery that forex allocations are not getting down to registered dealers and that persons that applied for forex for business and investments purposes were not getting them, rather, disbursement were often made to a few privileged, influential and highly placed individuals in government circle, including the Presidency.
It was further learnt that DSS investigation revealed shocking records of unholy forex transaction, allocation and disbursement in the past six years of Emefiele’s governorship of the apex bank.
A reliable source revealed that at today’s meeting with the DSS, the CBN officials and bank CEOs are to shed more light on the approvals of forex allocations to beneficiaries from 2017 to date.
They are also to submit the list of individuals and corporate organisations that have benefitted from the forex allocations so far.
The bank CEOs, it was further gathered, are also to supply the DSS a schedule of the investors and export window foreign exchange allocated to their individual banks from 2017 to date.
The commercial banks are to break the schedule into the amount of forex allocations given to them, list the name of the individual customer/or beneficiary and their purpose/criteria for getting the allocation.
They are also to supply the DSS the name of the authorized persons who allocated the forex and confirm whether it’s the CBN or the commercial banks themselves.
The commercial banks are also to give the secret police summary of the top 50 customers allocated the highest amount of forex and their order of importance.
However, the whole nation may be shocked to hear that the CBN Gov fail to honour the DSS invitation as expected.
The reason.may not be far fetched as Emefiele last week took legal precaution to forestall being subjected yo questioning or being tried by anti- graft agencies.
It would be recall that last Wednesday, Emefiele, through a Civil Society Organisation, Forum for Accountability and Good Leadership, obtained a court injunction from a Federal Capital Territory High Court restraining the DSS from questioning and obtaining any information from CBN officials and the CEOs of the 27 commercial banks regarding Foreign Exchange allocations from 2017 to date.
Presiding Judge of the court, Justice SB Belgore, adjourned hearing of the motion on notice on the matter till Wednesday, January 25.
The CBN Governor approached the court to stop the commercial banks from releasing the details about forex allocations to the DSS.
A source revealed that the DSS had, before the court granted the order, questioned and obtained documentary evidence from the bank’s Deputy Governors as well as from Managing Directors of the 27 commercial banks on forex allocations in the past six years.
This discovery could have prompted Emefiele to summon the banks’ MDs to Abuja for a “crucial meeting” last Saturday, probably to discuss how to respond to today’s invitation by DSS.
Aside the explanation on the forex dealings, the DSS may be inviting Emefiele to respond to recent allegation of aiding and abetting terrorism for which the CBN Governor was said to have been evading arrest and interrogation by the DSS.
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