The special investigator, recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu, to investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and related entities, Mr. Jim Obazee has raised the alarm over smear campaign against him over some imaginary financial impropriety.
He described the allegation as “outrageous falsehood.”
The former Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRCN, yesterday, said following the announcement of his appointment, there have been series of negative narratives published by some online media to tarnish his reputation.
Addressing newsmen, yesterday in Lagos, Obazee’s lawyer, Anayo Mbah, said the malicious campaign was meant to abuse the minds of the people so that Obazee can be viewed by members of the public as corrupt and fraudulent while he was in public service.
He said contrary to the false and malicious publications, there was never a criminal charge or conviction of Mr. Obazee in any court in Nigeria.
He said: “We challenge the peddlers of the false and malicious statements to produce the petition(s) and criminal charge(s) filed against Mr. Obazee as well as the judgment(s) of court convicting or sentencing him for any such criminal offences.
“We state categorically that what Mr. Obazee is aware of is a purely employment related civil suit filed at the National Industrial Court by one of the employees of FRCN for wrongful termination and other claims against FRCN and wherein Mr. Obazee was joined as a party as the Chief Executive Officer.
“Judgment was given in the case and FRCN and Mr. Obazee have since appealed against the decision of the National Industrial Court. There was never a criminal charge or conviction of Mr. Obazee in any court in Nigeria. The news is totally malicious and false.
“The news peddlers also stated in their publication that Mr. Obazee was linked to corruption, siphoned public funds into his pocket, took bribes to recommend federal takeover of banks and removal of Lamido Sanusi as CBN Governor and that Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was closely monitoring him over legion of petitions.
“No mention was made of any particular petition or petitioner or case file relating to all these spurious allegation of corruption.
“We are still waiting for further details from the news peddlers but there is not yet a single piece of evidence to support their publications. We had expected this campaign of calumny against his person because he has refused to be compromised and be enticed by several carrots being dangled at him to lure him away from the truth by the sponsors of these publications.”