The Department of State Service has arrested Kingsley Obiora, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of economic policy.
According to the Peoples Gazette, Obiora who was arrested earlier this week has now spent four nights in custody under questioning by the security service.
The arrest may not be unconnected to the investigation of alleged financial mismanagement under Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor.
Emefiele, who was first appointed as CBN governor in June 2014, has been in SSS custody since June 10, 2023, a day after he was controversially removed from office by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
While two federal judges have ordered Emefiele’s release, the DSS has continued to find other grounds to hold him in custody, often 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 targeted as a principal witness against his boss.
Another top CBN official, Abbas Masanawa was arrested recently and held in custody, as officials seek to determine the steepness of Emefiele’s alleged corruption.
The Gazette did not promptly hear back from the DSS and CBN about Obiora’s detention, which officials said was not entirely unexpected given his knowledge of CBN’s policy decisions.
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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.
Recall that Tinubu, in late July, appointed a special investigator 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 said.