TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, had a separate meeting with Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the presidential villa.

This is the first meeting between Buhari and the CBN governor this year.

According to NAN, the duo had met twice today.

Emefiele was part of a delegation from the Arab Bank for Economic Development earlier received by Buhari at the villa.

He got to the presidential villa at about 14:30 GMT and had a closed-door meeting for about 25 minutes with Buhari.

However, the apex bank governor declined questions and comments from the state correspondents after the meeting.

The CBN governor had returned to the country on January 12, 2023, after his annual vacation abroad, and resumed duty immediately.

For some time now, Emefiele has been the subject of investigations by the Department of State Services (DSS) which approached a federal high court in Abuja seeking a warrant to arrest him over alleged terrorism financing.

The court, however, declined the application on the grounds that the secret police did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims.

A federal capital territory (FCT) high court sitting in Maitama later issued an order restraining the DSS from arresting Emefiele.

Meanwhile, following the CBN governor’s return to the country, news spread across social media platforms accusing DSS operatives of invading the apex bank to arrest him.

But in a statement issued by Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesperson, the agency debunked the claims, describing them as “fake news”.

“The attention of the Department of State Services (DSS) has been drawn to the false news making the round that its operatives invaded the Central Bank of Nigeria and arrested its Governor, today 16/1/23. This is fake news and quite misleading,” the statement reads.