Soludo is a shameless thief who should be in jail if Nigeria was a sane country. See the aricle below and understand why his disqualification by APGA is a welcome development to all well-meaning individuals. N750m scam: EFCC detains Soludo
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday interrogated and detained the immediate past Governor of Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo in Abuja.
Commission’s media unit confirmed his presence at the commission.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 2010 governorship election in Anambra State was reportedly invited by the commission over the alleged bribery case involving the printing of N5, N10, and N20 during his tenure at the bank.
A very top source within the commission told the Nigerian Tribune that Soludo honoured the commission’s invitation and was quizzed for several hours.
He was said to have arrived the commission’s office at about 2 pm and when the Nigerian Tribune called the media unit of the commission a few minutes to 7.00 p.m., he was reportedly still under interrogation.
When the top source was asked if he would be released on administrative bail yesterday night, our correspondent was told that “you can be rest assured that by the time your story is out tomorrow, he would still be here. So if you wrote that he was released on administrative bail last night, then you would be feeding the reading public with incorrect information.”
A media unit source further stated that “he was invited and he appeared today. He is still with us and we are together. He is undergoing interrogation. If you check the time now (6.41 p.m.), you can guess how long he has been with us because he came in the afternoon during the working hours.”
“We asked him to come and explain his roles in the activities surrounding the bribery allegations on the printing of those notes. The case for which he was invited is about the Australian currency mint company, Securency, that handled polymer banknotes and what transpired in the course of printing those notes.”
It was gathered that a couple of former and serving CBN officials were also being interrogated over the alleged bribery deal.
When contacted, EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren was said to be in a crucial meeting.
A group, HEDA Resource Centre had petitioned the commission, demanding an investigation into the alleged currency scandal between 2006 and 2008.
The group’s chairman, Akaninyeme Enzina was invited by the commission on August 22, 2012 to defend the petition which was dated May 23, 2012.
HEDA’s petition had demanded the investigation and prosecution of serving and retired government officials indicted in the alleged scandal which stemmed from the printing of polymer Naira notes during the tenure of Professor Soludo at the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2006 and 2008.
The petition charged both the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to undertake this investigation and prosecution as empowered by laws establishing both institutions.
The petition was predicated on the printing of the notes which were allegedly printed in Australia in a fraudulent deal, following which The Age, a local newspaper, reported that former workers at Securency, The Reserve Bank of Australia’s currency firm, had told the police the firm produced millions of partly made Nigerian bank notes without authorisation from the Nigerian authorities.
In effect, the former staff said that was counterfeiting. The newspaper reported that the Australian Federal Police had subsequently investigated Securency over alleged bribery of foreign officials, including Nigerian and Vietnamese officials, to win contracts in these countries.
HEDA’s petition, according to Mr. Suraju, drew attention to the fact that The Age reported that Securency paid some N750 million in bribes to some officials of the CBN between 2006 and 2008 in order to secure the contract to make polymer notes for Nigeria, channeling the bribes through Benoy Berry and Michael Harvey, two British businessmen.
HEDA chairman further claimed that ,“The petition reminded the anti corruption institutions of a publication of Sydney Herald that on September 29, 2009, a day before the launching of the N5, N10 and N20 polymer notes, Benoy Berry, one of the British businessmen sent a letter to Myles Curtis (then Managing Director of Securency International Pty Limited, an Australian company) alleging a breach of contract and accusing the bank note company of bribing top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria to secure contract for Securency. He also accused Securency of breaching polymer-based mint planned to be established in Nigeria as part of principled objectives of transferring technology to developing nations.” http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/2843-n750m-scam-efcc-detains-soludo |
