N750m scandal: Soludo granted bail, passport seized

Former CBN Governor, Professor Charles Soludo
| credits: File copy

A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, who was arrested on Thursday, has been granted bail.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission picked him up over alleged complicity in the Australian polymer banknotes bribery scandal estimated at over N750m.

He was said to have been allowed to go home having been grilled for several hours by the commission’s team of investigators.

A source in EFCC told Saturday PUNCH that Soludo was asked to drop his diplomatic passport and to produce two sureties who must be senior federal civil servants not below the level of permanent secretaries or directors.

The source said, “The former CBN governor was eventually allowed to go yesterday (Thursday) night. I think he left around that time you people left.

“He was waiting for journalists to go and immediately you people left, he sneaked out. But that is not the end because he is also expected back for further interrogation.

“I don’t have much details on the other 12 ex-staff members of the CBN and the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, who were linked with the scandal; it is not as if the suspects are here. But a number of them have been questioned over time and they are from NSPMC and CBN, they are not in our station at the moment.”

Several efforts to get the confirmation of Soludo’s release from the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, were unsuccessful as he did not answer his telephone calls.

When our correspondent called back later, his two telephone lines were switched off.

Soludo arrived at the EFCC headquarters at about 2 pm on Thursday from his Abuja residence and immediately faced a team of operatives who quizzed him for several hours to ascertain his level of complicity in the scandal.