President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s special investigator, Jim Obazee, who has been assigned to look into the books of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has accused embattled immediate past CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, of stealing, as well as illegal and violent removal of government properties in order to loot.

According to the report of the anti-graft czar on CBN and related entities, Mr Emefiele allegedly removed five fireproof safes containing evidence relevant to the ongoing corruption probe and then planted another set of five fireproof safes that had already been vandalised inside the CBN to use as a decoy for the removed safes. 

“The governor’s office wing, his actual office presented a bizarre scene,” Mr Obazee said in his report to the president last week. “Five fireproof safes were seen wide open with severe assault and violent destructions. They were all confirmed empty and desolate.”

But Mr Obazee said CBN officials interrogated over the controversial safes told his panel that the safes were strange and could be an attempt to derail the investigation. 

“They all claimed that these five fireproof safes were strange and may have been planted to derail the investigation or for reasons best known to the perpetrators,” he said to the president. “The real safes in the governor’s office may have been removed (with their contents) in order to destroy evidence.”

Mr Obazee accused the head of security at CBN, P.C. Eze, and the former acting governor, Folashodun Shonubi, of compromising Mr Emefiele’s office in order to mess up evidence upon removal from office in June. 

Consequently, Mr Obazee said Mr Emefiele’s office had been marked a crime scene and would not be reopened until investigation and prosecution had been concluded. 

He recommended the prosecution of Messrs Shonubi and Emefiele and other officials involved for their “deep criminal intent,” which he said violated the penal codes of the Federal Capital Territory. Mr Obazee has already alleged over N17 trillion was looted under Mr Emefiele’s leadership, over which he also indicted former chief of staff Ibrahim Gambari and former finance minister Zainab Ahmed. 

Mr Emefiele did not immediately return a request seeking comments. The former CBN governor has denied any wrongdoing while fighting charges relating to his alleged corruption and mismanagement since he was arrested on June 10. He was released last week after 195 days.