WORLD NEWS | Nigerian central bank chief arrested after president suspends him

ABUJA, June 10 (AP) — The head of Nigeria’s central bank was arrested hours after being suspended by the country’s new president, authorities said Saturday.

The Nigerian secret police said in a statement that Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele was “detained for certain investigative reasons,” without giving further details.

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The country’s new president, Bola Tinubu, suspended Emefiele as central bank chief on Friday night, nine years after he was appointed to oversee monetary policy in Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation.

Emefiele’s suspension “is the result of ongoing investigations into his office and planned reforms in the economic and financial sector,” according to a statement by the federal government secretary. The bank’s deputy governor, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, will take over as acting governor immediately.

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Emefiele’s arrest prompted a months-long investigation of his office by the Nigerian State Department, whose application to arrest him in December was rejected by a local court. The secret police charged him with terrorism financing and economic crimes, but the judge ruled no evidence could be produced to support the charges. It was not immediately clear whether there were new findings from the investigation.

However, analysts said Emefiele’s removal was not a surprise, as some of the policies he had introduced in recent months were seen as controversial. Lagos-based financial analyst Abiola Gbemisola identified some of these policies as the bank’s currency swap program and the bank’s decision to keep printing money and borrowing money from the Nigerian government.

“Central bankers are very powerful during their tenure,” Gbemisola said.

“I didn’t expect him to stay under the new government, especially considering his policies leading up to the (February presidential) elections were not so friendly. Instead of focusing on bringing down inflation, he contributed to high inflation in Nigeria. Inflation by donating money to the federal government, printing money basically to provide loans,” Gbemisola added.

Under Emefiele, the Nigerian economy has struggled with a currency depreciation caused by a foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation, which hit a near 20-year high of 22.2% in April.

The bank’s move to replace the local naira currency with the newly designed currency has caused economic hardship for many Nigerians to the extent that it affected turnout in February’s elections, while authorities were forced to reintroduce the replaced old banknotes.

“The fact that he was removed is a good thing for (financial) markets and we can now expect to see something different,” Gbemisola said. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)