The Department of State Service (DSS) has arrested Kingsley Obiora, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) responsible for economic policy. Obiora’s arrest took place earlier this week, and he has been held in custody for four nights, undergoing questioning by the security service.
Meanwhile, his arrest is not directly related to the investigation into alleged financial mismanagement during the tenure of the ousted CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele, who served as CBN governor since June 2014, has been in DSS custody since June 10, 2023, shortly after his controversial removal from office by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Despite two federal judges ordering Emefiele’s release, the DSS has continued to detain him, often filing new charges to supersede previous ones for which the former CBN governor had been arraigned.
Sources very close to Mr. Obiora’s arrest suggest that he is being targeted as a key witness against his former boss, Emefiele. Another senior CBN official, Abbas Masanawa, was recently arrested and held in custody as part of efforts to investigate the alleged corruption within the CBN.
Kingsley Obiora, born on March 6, 1976, previously served as a policy chief at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and provided counsel to former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. He also served as an adviser to Emefiele until March 2, 2020, when he was confirmed as one of CBN’s four deputy governors.
This arrest follows President Tinubu’s appointment of a special investigator in late July to probe various federal agencies, including the CBN, suspected of fostering a culture of public graft. Jim Osayande Obazee assumed his role as the investigator in early August at the CBN.
The DSS and CBN have not immediately responded to inquiries about Obiora’s detention, but officials have indicated that it was not entirely unexpected due to his knowledge of CBN’s policy decisions.