According to two officials with access to the situation, the State Security Service has begun conducting a be-on-the-lookout operation for Governor Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
As a result, the domestic intelligence office has sent numerous operatives to keep an eye on the CBN Headquarters, Mr Emefiele's family home in Lagos, and businessman Christopher Emefiele's Abuja property, according to information obtained this weekend by Peoples Gazette.
Unable to quickly confirm if Director-General Yusuf Bichi approved the deployment, an SSS official with knowledge of the situation claimed the decision to deploy came from an assistant director.
“We have different teams of at least two each monitoring those places,” the officer said under anonymity to disclose cursory specifics of an ongoing operation. “We don’t know if they have more people deployed to even more places, but we did not see any signal from the DG’s office to suggest his involvement at this point”
The officers were still quietly monitoring the locations as of Saturday morning, The Gazette was told. Christopher Emefiele did not comment on whether or not he had noticed the presence of state agents near his property. Mr Emefiele’s phones rang through on Saturday morning and his wife Margaret declined a request seeking comments.
The development comes as Mr Emefiele’s whereabouts became fuzzy after learning of an active threat to take him into custody by the SSS. The agency unsuccessfully sought a warrant from the Federal High Court earlier this month, with a federal judge ruling that sufficient probable cause was not established for the issuance of a warrant against a sitting governor of the nation’s banker and foremost regulator of the banking sector.
In the application ex-parte, an action filed to the exclusion of its defendant, the SSS asked the court to order Mr Emefiele’s arrest on account of terrorism financing and economic sabotage, among other nefarious acts.
But Justice John Tsoho said he didn’t see enough evidence in the SSS application and bemoaned the agency’s failure to take him into confidence.
“It, therefore, seems that the applicant intends to use the court as a cover for an irregular procedure, which is unacceptable,” the judge ruled on December 13.
However, Mr Tsoho asserted that the SSS could still accept Mr Emefiele as part of its responsibilities as a federal law enforcement agency. The CBN governor is not protected by the constitution from being detained or charged while in office.
According to CBN officials, Mr Emefiele has not been seen at work since he travelled to Washington, D.C., with President Muhammadu Buhari, along with other senior Nigerian officials, for a series of political and commercial events beginning on December 11. On December 18, soon before 5:00 a.m., Mr Buhari returned to Abuja, but Mr Emefiele remained hidden from view.
Officers, however, believed Mr Emefiele was not in Nigeria and may be staying there to avoid being apprehended. But the president would ultimately determine how long Mr Emefiele could stay undercover or avoid entering Nigeria while serving as governor of the central bank.
Justice Tsoho claimed that he considered the economic repercussions before rejecting the SSS's request to detain Mr Emefiele, but analysts said it was possible that the widespread publicity surrounding the allegations had already had a negative impact on the economy, without necessarily specifying how steep.
Speaking about Mr Emefiele's location, a CBN spokeswoman declined to comment. The presidency is silent on the subject.
Civic organisations have backed the CBN governor, who many claims is the latest victim of a power manoeuvre before the general elections scheduled for February.
Earlier this year, during the primary season, Mr Emefiele sought the presidential nomination of the opposition All Progressives Congress. However, he later withdrew his bid after being informed that he must leave office before publicly engaging in partisan politics.
Additionally, he recently issued a divisive order capping withdrawals from bank accounts at N100,000 ($130) every week. W Economists criticised the programme, calling it excessive and stupid, and warned that it will aggravate the already difficult economic situation in the nation. Officials from the central bank, however, said that the action was taken to stifle politicians' continuous efforts to hoard money that would be used to pay voters at the polls.
Before that, the governor had abruptly changed the design of the naira note, making any previously accumulated banknotes ineligible for use in elections.
Supporters said that Mr Emefiele became a target of certain dishonest politicians as a result of the actions, with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party virtually blaming Bola Tinubu, the APC's presidential candidate, as the scheme's architect. Historically, the SSS has been employed to settle political scores, including the murder of government opponents.
This week's unpopular policy was changed, although it's unclear if Mr. Emefiele made the change to appease the SSS.
According to an SSS official, there are internal concerns that the organisation is becoming overly politicised to the point where career officers ready to focus only on their national security responsibilities would get distracted.
“We are very concerned at this point,” the agent said. “We don’t know what Emefiele did, and no one is telling us what he did; we are only tasked with bringing him in for questioning.”
“That is too political for us, and I am not the only one here worried about this,” the officer added.
A spokesman for the SSS said he was not immediately available to discuss matters relating to Mr Emefiele.