Kinsmen of former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Agbor Stakeholders Forum (ASF), yesterday, raised the alarm claiming relentless persecution and witch-hunt of their kin, describing its ongoing prosecution as the greatest political witch-hunt in Nigeria’s history.

The group, in a statement by Kanene Kachikwu, said the latest scheme by the Bola Tinubu administration to break their brother and probably jail him for purely political reason is the surreptitious contracting of the world’s number one accounting firm, Deloitte Consulting, to audit the forex transactions of the CBN during Emefiele’s time.

According to the group, no other CBN governor has been so probed in the history or Nigeria.

“It must be stated that Deloitte is the biggest accounting firm in the world today and they are priced in tens of million of dollars.

“This firm was secretly recruited by the Tinubu administration recently to do a yeoman’s job of auditing Emefiele’s CBN.

“Deloitte has come up with yet another binge of allegations. Remember that all previous charges have been dropped and Emefiele is being dragged to court on fresh charges.

This is after several other investigations to nail Emefiele have failed. Recall that since June 2023, immediately after the inauguration of Tinubu, Emefiele has been subjected to intense probes and scrutinies without let, till date.

“The first grilling of Emefiele was by the Department of State Service (DSS).DSS had plucked our brother from his Lagos home on June 10, 2023. They had detained him in Abuja and literally turned him upside-down.

“The DSS initially accused him of financing terror. They kept him in their custody for about four months. They visited all his property everywhere in Nigeria and ransacked them all.

“At the end of the day, they found only a little ‘toy’ gun. They didn’t get an iota of evidence to prosecute him on the accusation of funding terror or gun-running,” ASF said.

Consequently, the group called on Tinubu to have a change of heart and let their brother go as he has gone through a lot already having lost his tenured job and having suffered humiliation and incarceration for months. ASF also urged the president to apply the graces of his good offices and free their brother.

“Having won the crown, we appeal to him to grant our brother reprieve in the spirit of reconciliation and national healing.
“We trust that Emefiele will be an asset to this administration knowing that he’s a true patriot,” the group stated.

According to the group, the DSS had dragged Emefiele to court several times on some trumped up charges but not one charge could stand up before the court.

It added: “The DSS shamefacedly handed Emefiele to brother agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“The EFCC that was supposed tp investigate Emefiele in the first place also dredged up all sorts of unfounded allegations of financial malfeasance, including procurement offences. But none could stand the test of basic legality. EFCC failed.

“Tinubu engaged a so-called Special Investigator, Mr. Jim Obazee who had a baggage, the size of Aso Rock hills.

“Feisty, tainted and excitable like a child, Obazee rushed to pronounce that CBN under Emefiele opened about one thousand bank accounts across the globe; that he had interests in some new banks, that some N7.3b were traceable to Emefiele, and that he forged Buhari’s signature to draw $6.2m, among other spurious allegations. Not one allegation has been proved by the trio of DSS, EFCC and Obazee.

“As we have noted several times before in the last one year, our brother was headhunted for the job of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor in 2014. “He was plucked from the pinnacle of one of the biggest and best banks in Africa.”

The group noted that Emefiele rose through the ranks to become the MD/CEO of that bank and remains a major shareholder in the bank and therefore, was probably the richest CBN governor ever to be appointed.

” We therefore state categorically that MrEmefiele was not in the CBN to look for money or to make money.
“On the contrary, his driving force was and remains the need to mobilise idle long-term funds for the rapid development of Nigeria.”