Northerners under the aegis of the Concerned Northern Forum have cautioned President Bola Tinubu against the use of the report submitted to him by Jim Obazee, the special investigator hired to check the activities of the country’s apex bank under its suspended Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
The Northerners issued the caution in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement signed by the group’s Chairman,
Aliyu Muhammad urged the President to tread with caution because he might be blindfolded and walking in a field full of buried landmines.
The statement read, “This is so because Jim Obazee himself is not qualified to lead any special investigation, most especially one that has to do with finance given his antecedents.
“The man hired by President Tinubu is at the heart of scandals that involved siphoning and squandering of billions of naira while he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), awarding and procurement of contracts to self using proxies, racketeering, acquiring luxury properties worth billions both at home and abroad that his salary could never justify and also accused of sexual harassment.
“A known and tagged man of controversies, with so many dirty cuts on his character and financial records is not the man for such a job. Obazee’s professionalism, patriotism and loyalty are all questioned, his priorities are his financial gains or personal scores he set out to settle. Jim Obazee should be investigated and not the other way round.
“Unless the President is interested in his expertise of personal witch hunt and controversies that are capable of inciting chaos, Jim Obazee has no bussines investigating the CBN or any other financial institution for that matter. Mr President should heed to the action of firing Jim Obazee by his Predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari who is known to despise and fight corruption.”
The group agreed that the apex bank be probed and investigated. However, it said it shouldn’t be by an individual with questionable character, integrity and a tone of corruption cases, graft and misuse of public funds himself.
The statement urged the president to ignore the report, on the basis that it is one-sided, partial, and some of its recommendations are fatal to the economic well-being of Nigeria.
