Department of State Service (DSS) has started exercising a be-on-the-lookout for Governor Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria, according to two officials familiar with the matter, Peoples Gazette reported on Saturday.
Consequently, the domestic intelligence office has deployed several officers to monitor the CBN Headquarters, Mr Emefiele’s family residence in Lagos, and the Abuja home of businessman Christopher Emefiele, unrelated by blood, the online newspaper said.
A DSS officer familiar with the matter said the deployment came from an assistant director and could not immediately say whether or not Director-General Yusuf Bichi signed off on it.
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.