Lamido Sanusi Returns To Nigera, Has Passport Seized By The SSS

Shortly after the recently suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, arrived to Lagos from Niger, his travelling documents were seized by the officials of the State Security Service.

In Niger, Mr. Sanusi had attended a meeting of governors of central banks in the West African sub-region.

As soon as his plane landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, plain-clothed operatives detained him and insisted that he surrendered his passport and stayed at the airport until the arrival of the Lagos state director of the SSS.

After a while, though, Mr. Sanusi was allowed to leave; however, his passport was confiscated.

He was received by a group of associates and friends led by by a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai. They drove out of the airport in a convoy heading towards Ikoyi.

Earlier today, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered immediate suspension of Mr. Sanusi from his office on the basis of “various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct inconsistent with the administration’s vision of a Central Bank”. 

Speaking on behalf of the President, Reuben Abati, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, ordered the Central Bank governor to hand over to the most senior Deputy Governor of the bank, Mrs. Alade, who will serve as Acting Governor until the conclusion of ongoing investigations into alleged breaches of enabling laws, due process and mandate of the Central Bank.

Mr. Sanusi was suspended in absentia, as he was at a three-day meeting of the West African Central Bank Governors. Upon learning the news, he changed his travel plans.

It will be recalled that the suspended CBN Governor accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation of corruption and financial mismanagement, saying the body had diverted federal revenues accruing to the nation from the sale of crude oil. Mr. Sanusi says as much as $20 billion oil money is missing