The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested two directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria for alleged forex manipulation, Punch reports.
It is reported that the houses of the directors were searched and incriminating evidences have been recovered and that the directors of the apex bank were still in custody as at 7.30pm on Wednesday.
An EFCC source privy to this information said, “We have arrested two directors of the CBN in connection with forex manipulation. We believe that it was the activities of these individuals that contributed to the dollar scarcity and the weakening of the naira.
“Ironically, immediately we started investigating these chaps a month ago, the CBN reeled out a new forex policy which sought to flood the market with excess dollar and strengthen the naira.
“Already, we have searched their houses and recovered some sensitive documents. We have reason to believe that they may not have acted alone. We expect to make more discoveries as investigations continue.”
However, Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department (CBN) Isaac Okoroafor no director of the apex bank had been arrested by the EFCC.
He said, “This is not true. No director of the bank (CBN) has been arrested by the EFCC. The current activities of the CBN in the forex market is a result of months of study, monitoring and planning to tackle the activities of black marketers.
“We are succeeding and Nigerians are happy with us. No amount of false rumours and concoctions to ridicule and sabotage the success we have achieved will make us lose our focus at this time.”
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