Jim Obazee has been designated by President Bola Tinubu as a Special Investigator to look into the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria and other relevant organizations.
Invoking the essential goal outlined in Section 15(5) of the Nigerian constitution, Mr. Tinubu claimed that the appointment of Mr. Obazee would advance the anti-corruption campaign of his administration.
The position is effective right away, and Mr. Obazee will answer directly to the president.
The precise terms of Mr. Obazee’s engagement as a special investigator would be revealed to him in due course, according to the letter the president signed.
Before being removed in 2017, Mr. Obazee served as the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria’s (FRCN) chief executive.President Tinubu particularly instructed Mr. Obazee to act right away in order to ensure the integrity and strengthening of important GBEs and stop leaks in the CBN and associated GBEs. Additionally, he gave the special investigator instructions to compile a detailed report on the public assets that are now held by dishonest people and organizations (whether private or public).
The president further instructed Mr. Obazee to conduct an investigation into the CBN and connected entities using a team that was appropriately qualified, experienced, and capable, as well as to collaborate with pertinent security and anti-corruption agencies to complete the task. Mr. Obazee is required to give the president a weekly update on the project’s status.
President Tinubu called Mr. Obazee’s attention in the letter to his order to suspend the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, on 9 June.
A day after being fired by Mr. Tinubu, the CBN boss was detained by State Security Service (SSS) agents at his home in Lagos. Then, he was flown to Abuja. He is being prosecuted by the SSS for having an unlicensed firearm, and the Federal High Court of Abuja last Thursday granted him bail.
Shortly after the bail was approved, the SSS re-arrested him on the court grounds, which resulted in a brawl between some members of the security agency and those of the Nigerian Correctional Center who tried to hold him until he complied with the court-mandated bail conditions.
Despite receiving a bail decision from the court, the secret service has yet to publicly explain why Mr. Emefiele is still being held.
Mr. Emefiele was granted bail by the court, but the secret service has yet to publicly explain why he remains in custody. Jim Obazee served as the FRCN’s first executive secretary and chief executive officer from the organization’s founding on 3 June 2011 until his dismissal by former President Muhammadu Buhari on 9 January 2017.The CEO of the council holds the job for a term of four years, although the President may extend it for an additional term.
As the council’s CEO, Mr. Obazee was in charge of establishing, overseeing, and enforcing corporate governance practices in both the publicand private sectors of the economy. Harmonizing the functions of all professional and regulatory organisations in Nigeria was a part of his official mandate. Little was known about the council until 2014, when the then-President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Lamido Sanusi, the governorof the Central Bank of Nigeria, as a result of his proposal. Prior to his dismissal, Mr. Sanusi accused the Jonathan administration of serious financial misconduct in connection with the alleged theft of remittances from the NNPC.
Mr Obazee is a graduate of accounting from the University of Benin with a Master’s degree in the same course from the University of Lagos.
