The suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, may face trial, as the plea bargain negotiations between him and the Federal Government have come to a standstill.
Sources indicate that Emefiele and other senior bank officials have not made significant concessions regarding the expected refunds.
This publication learnt that a federal agency is currently tracking trillions of Naira missing from several suspicious transactions linked to the former CBN boss.
Additionally, it has been reported that external forces attempting to mediate alongside Emefiele himself have not made any headway in resolving the plea bargain terms.
Apart from Emefiele offering to step aside in August, other terms were the withdrawal of court cases against the government and the refund of substantial cash allegedly linked to him and others.
It is understood that the four deputy governors were dropped because of their alleged complacency when Emefiele was in the saddle at the apex bank.
According to a source with information on the matter, the Presidency was shocked by the “massive scale of fraud and flagrant violations of the CBN Act.”
Following interventions, the government’s investigation, initially coordinated by a security agency, had recommended a plea bargain option with Emefiele, who wanted it.
However, there were strong indications that the plea bargain option may have suffered a setback.
The Presidency source said the CBN was stinking. He declined to volunteer information on the plea bargain dimension.
The source said the government might prosecute anyone indicted.
Investigation confirmed that the four deputy governors were replaced because of their alleged complacency.
The Presidency source said none of the deputy governors complained when Emefiele allegedly mismanaged the CBN.
“Most of the DGs “actively collaborated with Emefiele on policies and decisions not in line with the CBN’s mandate,” the Nation Newspaper quoted the source as saying.
The source added: “Investigation is still ongoing. The special investigator sure uncovered a lot of rots which implicated the Deputy Governors.
“There is no way the Deputy Governors would have remained with the scale of corruption, poor corporate governance and complacency that happened under Emefiele.
“Allowing them to remain will mean the government has condoned all that went down under their watch.”
Those affected were Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi (Deputy Gov Operations and Acting Governor), Aisha Ahmad (Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability), Adamu Lamtek (Deputy Gov Corporate Services) and Kingsley Obiora (Deputy Governor, Economic Policy).
