Plot To Witchhunt Me –Sanusi

The suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has alleged that the planned investigation by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) was to witchhunt him.

Sanusi made this claim while adopting  and arguing his case in a suit he filed against FRCN and its secretary challenging the legality of the plan to investigate him over alleged financial recklessness at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

The plaintiff is also alleging that apart from the fact that the principle of fair hearing was ignored, he had been nailed already even before the commencement of the investigation against him.

His lawyer,Kola Awodein (SAN), argued that the FRCN lacked the power to look into the books of CBN under Sanusi, as the investigation was in breach of fundamental rights to natural justice.

For instance, Awodein recalled that in the briefing note, his client (Sanusi) was accused of recklessly spending about N20.2 billion on legal and professional fees, but that N19.8 billion of the money was actually used to pay a judgment sum to some pensioners of CBN in a Supreme Court case filed by one Amao against the apex bank.

Awodein denied that huge sums were paid as local flight fees to two airlines, which were said to be foreign companies, adding that a proper clarification would have been made had Sanusi given fair hearing.

Awodein said: “The FRCN and the Executive Secretary who are to conduct

the investigation, have already shown that they have decided the issues by the statements they made about Sanusi being financially reckless. For instance, my lord, the FRCN Executive Secretary, in the concluding part of the briefing note to the President said and I quote: “It is important for Mr President to take action fast before Sanusi resigns to foreclose investigation, and also so that the opposition will not accuse the President of allowing such financial recklessness to be perpetrated by the CBN Governor under his watch.”

However, the FRCN counsel, Adesegun Ajibola (SAN), while responding to Sanusi’s allegations, urged the court to discountenance the oral allegations raised by Awodein in court.

He said the court was not an administrative tribunal, and that the allegations ought to have been raised as Sanusi’s defence during the FRCN probe.

Ajibola stressed that what Sanusi hoped to do with the suit was to stop an investigation which was yet to commence noting, that the allegation of lack of fair hearing was misplaced because the suspended CBN Governor had always been aware of the issues in the allegation.

He also argued that Sanusi lacked the legal backing to refer to the briefing note, as same was not certified, being a public document as required by Sections 101 and 104 of the Evidence Act. According to Ajibola, “Sanusi’s fear and anxiety of filing this suit are clearly misplaced. He has jumped the gun. He should have presented himself for the investigation and if he thinks that the investigation was conducted in a biased manner, he can challenge the report of the investigation, but certainly not to stop the investigation.

“There are many others that have been invited including serving and former CBN officials, so it was not only about him and beside in this suit, Sanusi failed to list the CBN as a party. So, I urge the court to strike out this suit,” Ajibola concluded.