The presidency has cautioned bank executives indicted by the special investigative team set up to investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) activities under its former governor, Godwin Emefiele.
It was learnt that some bank executives and business moguls have been making “frantic moves to reach out to top aides of the president in the Villa to find a soft landing for them.”
Some industry players, it was gathered, met with Tinubu to give them a soft landing in the special investigation headed by Jim Obaze.
This is even as the panel gets ready to submit its interim report to President Bola Tinubu in the coming days.
Presidential sources say Emefiele had mentioned some of the bank chiefs as either beneficiaries of the sleaze funds or accessories who facilitated the disbursement of the monies under investigation.
One of the sources noted that some of the banks’ chiefs, who benefitted from the Anchor Borrowers programme and business moguls involved in dollar round-tripping, had earlier trailed the President to Paris, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia when he visited.
The source said the bank chefs and top businessmen went to see the President in a last minute move to stop the Obaze-led team from including them among those to be arraigned for prosecution.
“The President washed his hands off the case because it is a matter solely for the special investigator and his team and he is unlikely to interfere. They should be ready to defend their actions if called upon,” a source close to the president said.