CBN: Northern forum questions Obazee’s integrity, cautions Tinubu
Maureen Aguta
The Concerned Northern Forum has cautioned President Bola Tinubu over the use of the report before him submitted by Jim Obazee, the special investigator hired to check the activities of the country’s apex bank under its suspended governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
The group disclosed this on Tuesday in a statement by the Chairman, Aliyu Muhammad, reports Daily Independent.
The statement urged the president to tread with caution, because he might be blind folded and walking in a field, full of buried landmines.
The statement reads, “This is so because Jim Obazee himself is not qualified to lead any special investigation, most especially one that has to do with finance given his antecedents.
“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.”
While the group agreed that the apex bank 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.
The statement therefore urged President Tinubu to ignore the report, its basis as compromised as the author of the report. It is one sided, partial and some of its recommendations are fatal to the economic wellbeing of Nigeria.