Senates threatens to arrests CBN governor states reasons.

Following the alleged unequal distribution of a N500 billion development money among the six geopolitical zones, the Senate threatened to issue an arrest warrant for Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

On November 30, the Senate’s Adhoc committee on the matter threatened to issue an arrest warrant for Olukayode Pitan, the managing director of Bank of Industry (BoI), as well as the leaders of some financial institutions, according to reports.

Emefiele, Pitan, and the others implicated, according to the red chamber’s committee, disregarded its invitation.

Furthermore, the committee issued arrest warrants for Aliyu Abdulhamid, managing director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), and Olawale Fasanya, director-general of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), for allegedly missing a session of the investigation.

Investigating charges that the aforementioned institutions colluded to underpay some zones in the distribution of cash intended for small and medium-sized businesses across the nation is one of the committee’s tasks.

The committee’s chairman, Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East), revealed that just two of the five invited government agencies showed up on Wednesday.

Musa pointed out that CBN, BOI, and NIRSAL declined the offer without providing any official notification or justification for doing so.

He said:

“Out of these five, only two came while the remaining three which are the CBN, BOI, and NIRSAL, were conspicuously absent without any letter from them explaining why.

“Assignment before this committee is a very important one, requiring cooperation and compliance from all those linked to issues at hand.

“MD of DBN and his counterpart from the Bank of Agriculture are here for required clarifications and explanations, making it mandatory for the CBN Governor, MD of BOI, and DG of NISRAL to appear unfailingly in subsequent sessions or risk being coerced through the issuance of a warrant of arrest.”