Nigerian newspaper to honour Obazee, the man who investigated Emefiele

ThisNigeria newspaper has named Jim Obazee among those to be honoured at its 2024 Lecture and Awards.

Mr Obazee is the special investigator hired by President Bola Tinubu last July to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele.

He, and other government officials, will receive the prize for the public service category, the daily reported on Wednesday.

Former Head of State Abdusalami Abubakar is to chair the lecture for the awards, slated for 27 June.

The newspaper will also honour Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory; Kabir Abba Yusuf, the Kano State Governor and Umo Bassey Eno, the Akwa Ibom State Governor with the gold prize awards.

While Mr Wike will be honoured for his “Infrastructural Revolution and Exceptional Leadership,” Mr Yusuf and Mr Eno will be recognised for “Courage in Leadership” and “Peace Building & Innovative Leadership” respectively.

Isa Aremu, veteran labour leader and the director-general of the Michael Imoudu Institute of Labour Studies, is to receive the Public Service Award.

“Obazee, a patriotic and fearless Nigerian, was saddled with the arduous task of unearthing and cleansing the Augean stable of economic malfeasances in the Central Bank of Nigeria under the embattled former Governor, Godwin Emefiele,” ThisNigeria stated.

“The trial is still ongoing, but to Obazee and his team’s credit “there has been no story or case of anyone succumbing to inducements to sway them from the path of rectitude.”

During his scrutiny of Mr Emefiele’s stewardship, Mr Obazee and his team uncovered 593 bank accounts domiciled in the US, the UK and China in which the CBN, under the former governor, stashed away Nigerian funds without authorisation.

The investigator also exposed billions of naira allegedly stolen by the former apex bank’s chief and other officials from CBN’s accounts including a “fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million.”

Mr Obazee noted in his report the discovery of £543.4 million allegedly hidden by Mr Emefiele in fixed deposit accounts, adding that he manoeuvred the naira exchange rate and used the e-naira project to commit fraud.

READ ALSO: Court confiscates $4.7 million, N830m, multimillion properties traced to Emefiele

“The sum of N1,727,500,000 was also spent on questionable legal fees on 19 cases that are directly traceable to the Naira Redesign and reconfiguration agenda,” the report said.

In May, the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, ordered a temporary forfeiture of the $4.7 million and N830.9 million as well as several other properties linked to Mr Emefiele, who is currently facing multiple corruption cases in Lagos and Abuja.