The suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, said his suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan came few days to his move to trace missing $20bn oil money.
Sanusi said this in in an interview published in New York Times on Monday.
The CBN Governor said he had already threatened open the books of the bankers, to trace the money during a semi-monthly meeting with bank chiefs on February 11.
According to him, there are suspicions some were laundering stolen oil money.
“Some of them were not giving information about their accounts,” Sanusi stated, adding, “I told them I would order a special examination.”
According to the New York Times’ report, one of the bankers at the meeting said, “He (Sanusi) made it clear to them that the CBN would need to unravel what was going on, and they should cooperate.”
Panicked, several of the bankers went straight to the government, Sanusi said.
Two of the bankers — he would not identify them — “went and reported to the petroleum minister,” the suspended CBN chief added.
“The strategy of the government was to discredit the messenger,” he said.
Sanusi added, The President “doesn’t want me to bring out any more information that would get them into trouble.”
