The ongoing probe of the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) and other Government Business Entities (GBEs) by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu – appointed Special investigators led by Jim Obazee have recorded a major hit with the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arresting the CBN Director of Finance, Mr Benjamin Adeoye Fakunle.
The Daily Crucible learnt that Fakunle was arrested on Wednesday in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by DSS operatives while partying in one of his luxury properties in the Nigerian capital.
Operatives of the Secret Police who were said to be closely watching Fakunle from their radar, arrested him at he lavish party he organised to celebrate his retirement from the services of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Before now, he was said to have cleverly evaded arrest and interrogation several times until Wednesday when the operatives stormed his party and apprehended him, according to sources which described it a major boost and breakthrough to the efforts of the present government at recovering trillions of naira allegedly stolen by some people from the vaults of CBN under the watch of its suspended Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
The CBN finance director was said to have been the cat paw used by Emefiele and the current Acting Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, to allegedly steal the nation’s treasury of unspecified trillions of Naira.
The Daily Crucible had earlier reported that the Special Investigator – Obazee’s panel, had traced a shocking N8trillion unlawfully taken in bits by some people from the CBN’s purse and moved into several private bank accounts, a development that saw many of bank’s chiefs being grilled for their alleged roles in these various fraudulent transactions.
Also, two CBN deputy governors, Kingsley Obiora and Aisha Ahmad as well as the acting Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, were recently nabbed, detained and interrogated by the DSS and the Special Investigator over their roles in the alleged heist at the apex bank when the suspended Emefiele held sway.
Fakunle was also said to have been the last finance director of the CBN that prepared the audit report published on the website of the apex bank.
Since the appointment of the private investigator, the apex bank’s top chiefs and their cronies both in commercial banks and private companies have been living in mortal fear over the risk of being arrested, detained and interrogated as more revelations keep unfolding from the investigator(s) about the alleged financial recklessness and stealing in the nation’s apex bank, according to sources.
It was reported recently how Obazee’s panel had recommended in its preliminary report the immediate withdrawal of the seven-year CBN audited annual financial reports released, following the discovery of some discrepancies and irregularities in the apex bank’s financial accounts.
CBN had in August released its financial reports for years 2016 to 2022 amid the ongoing probe of the apex bank by Tinubu’s Special Investigator. But the audit reports are said to have been found out by the panel to contain inaccurate information and false data.
Fakunle was said to have earlier been invited by the Special Investigator’s panel for questioning, but allegedly refused to cooperate during interrogation, despite all the evidence he was confronted with about his complicity in the heist at the CBN.
It was learnt that Fakunle as the apex bank’s finance director, aided the suspended Emefiele and his deputies, including the acting CBN governor, Shonubi, to perpetrate mind boggling fraud at the apex bank and the looting of the nation’s treasury.
It was due to his refusal to cooperate and his failure to honour further invitation, it was learnt, that led to the Special Investigator’s panel’s invitation to the DSS to effect his arrest before he escaped from the country.
DSS had earlier on Wednesday invited him to their headquarters, but he didn’t honour the secret police’s invitation, hence his eventual arrest.
Impeccable security sources revealed that Fakunle had already perfected his plans to flee the country immediately after the lavish celebration but the DSS operatives foiled it as they stormed the venue of the night party and picked him up.
Fakunle’s arrest, it was gathered, would throw clearer light on the heist perpetrated at the CBN under Emefiele’s watch.
According to reliable security sources, the arrested CBN finance director has been discovered to be operating well over 65 personal bank accounts domiciled in Nigeria and abroad.
Many believed Fakunle has no fewer than 28 luxury properties in choice places of Abuja.
