Baatunji Wusu –
Jim Obazee, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Special Investigator, has been declared by the Concerned Northern Forum to be unfit to investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Remember that on December 20, 2023, Obazee—who was designated special investigator in July 2023—sent the President his final report, which was titled “Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable Offenses).”
In the report, he said that without the board of directors of the apex bank’s and the CBN Investment Committee’s consent, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria unlawfully deposited billions of naira in foreign currency in as many as 593 bank accounts in the US, the UK, and China.
Obazee also said that in order for Emefiele to establish Titan Trust Bank and buy Union Bank, some people were used as proxies.
But the northern group asked Tinubu to proceed with utmost caution over the report that Obazee received, according to a statement released by the group’s head on Tuesday, Aliyu Muhammad.
The forum warned that the President might be blindfolded and strolling through a field full of buried land mines, noting that several of Obazee’s proposals in his report are lethal to Nigeria’s economic well-being.
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.”
