The Nigerian Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s top intelligence agency, announced Saturday that Governor of the Nigerian Central Bank Godwin Emefiele was arrested. The arrest comes just hours after recently elected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu suspended Emefiele from his position.
Tinubu’s office released a statement about the suspension, saying, “This is sequel to the ongoing investigation of his [Emefiele’s] office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.”
The suspension and arrest comes amidst an increasingly tense relationship between Emefiele and Tinubu. Prominent Nigerian financial analyst Abiola Gbemisola expressed surprise that Emefiele stayed on after Tinubu’s election, saying, “I wasn’t expecting him to stay under the new administration, especially given the fact that he was not so kind in his policies leading up to the [February presidential] election.”
The tension led to accusations that Emefiele was “plotting” against Tinubu, which the Nigerian Central Bank released a statement denying, saying, “we wish to reiterate that the CBN Governor does not take part in politics and therefore urge anyone with contrary information to prove the Governor wrong by providing any facts.”
Tinubu was elected in February and sworn in in May after a hotly contested presidential election. Another presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, claimed in March that the election was “neither free nor fair.”