According to reports, the Department of State Services (DSS) has seized the international passport of suspended Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele was suspended as the apex bank boss by President Bola Tinubu on Friday and was later arrested by DSS operatives in Lagos and flown to Abuja in a private jet on Saturday.
A DSS source told The Punch on Sunday that the suspended CBN boss’s travel document had been seized pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation.
He stated that Emefiele’s passport was seized as is a standard procedure and that the suspended CBN governor has been on the service’s watch list for quite some time.
The source added that the office and residence of the suspended apex bank governor would be searched for documents that can aid the ongoing investigation.
He said;
Of course, Emefiele’s travel document would be confiscated as part of the standard process pending the conclusion of our investigation. Also, as part of the investigation, his house and office would be searched for documents that can aid the ongoing investigation on his management of the CBN.
According to the DSS source, other top CBN directors may be summoned or arrested for questioning their roles in the apex bank’s administration.
He also stated that the secret police may reconsider the criminal charges it previously filed against Emefiele, which include terrorism financing and fraud.
The secret police had previously attempted to obtain an arrest warrant for Emefiele but were unable to persuade the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho.
The DSS will also look into Emefiele’s mismanagement of the CBN subsidiary, Nigeria’s Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, as well as the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
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