The Concerned Northern Forum has stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Special Investigator, Jim Obazee, is not qualified to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Recall that Obazee, appointed special investigator in July 2023, submitted his final report tagged, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable offenses) to the Presidency on December 20, 2023.
In the report, he revealed that the former CBN governor illegally lodged billions of naira in foreign currencies in no fewer than 593 bank accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, and China without the approval of the apex bank’s board of directors and the CBN Investment Committee.
Obazee also alleged that some persons were used as proxies by Emefiele to set up Titan Trust Bank and acquire Union Bank.
But the northern group, in a statement Tuesday by its chairman, Aliyu Muhammad, urged Tinubu to exercise extreme caution over the report submitted to Obazee.
The forum noted that some of Obazee’s recommendations in his report are fatal to the economic well-being of Nigeria, warning that the President might be blindfolded and walking in a field full of buried land mines.
He said: “The man hired by President Tinubu is at the heart of scandals that involved siphoning and squandering of billions of naira while he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), awarding and procurement of contracts to self-using proxies, racketeering, acquiring luxury properties worth billions both at home and abroad that his salary could never justify and also accused of sexual harassment.
“A known and tagged man of controversies, with so many dirty cuts on his character and financial records, is not the man for such a job. Obazee’s professionalism, patriotism, and loyalty are all questioned, his priorities are his financial gains or personal scores he set out to settle. Jim Obazee should be investigated and not the other way round.
“Unless the President is interested in his expertise of personal witch hunt and controversies that are capable of inciting chaos, Jim Obazee has no business investigating the CBN or any other financial institution for that matter. Mr President should heed to the action of firing Jim Obazee by his Predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari who is known to despise and fight corruption.
“Yes, CBN should be probed and investigated, but not by an individual with questionable character, integrity and a tone of corruption cases, graft and misuse of public funds himself.
“Therefore, President Bola Tinubu must not use this report, its basis are as compromised as the author of the report. It is one sided, partial and some of it’s recommendations are fatal to the economic wellbeing of Nigeria.”
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