Soludo Recalls EFCC Probe, Reveals What Happened After One Year

Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, has recounted his encounter with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after his tenure as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ended.

Soludo said the anti-graft agency invited him for questioning over the activities of Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Plc, where he served as chairman of the board.

He said the agency eventually cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Naija News reports that Soludo spoke on Friday during the commissioning of the EFCC Awka Zonal Directorate Complex, which will serve Anambra and Imo states.

He said he appeared before the commission after receiving a month’s notice of the investigation but did not hear from the EFCC for about a year.

According to Soludo, he later wrote to the commission for an update and was told the investigation had not established any corrupt conduct on his part.

“My personal testimonies about the professionalism of this Commission is that when I left office as CBN Governor, EFCC was investigating Nigeria Printing and Minting Company, the Mint, an agency within the bank.

“I was chairman of board of the Mint and was given one month notice of investigation and I showed up. After about a year, I didn’t hear from them, so I wrote them and they said that the investigation didn’t show any corrupt action about me,” he said.

Soludo further said the then EFCC chairman had clarified that he was not the subject of the investigation after his name was mentioned in connection with the matter.

He said the commission subsequently wrote to him confirming that its investigation had not established any wrongdoing on his part

“When my name was mentioned in connection with the investigation, the former chairman of EFCC told them that I was not the subject of the investigation.

“Subsequently, the Commission wrote me a beautiful letter and said the investigation showed I didn’t have anything to do with the matter,” Soludo said.

The governor said the experience reinforced his appreciation of the commission’s work, particularly the need for investigators to formally communicate inquiry outcomes to people who were invited but not found culpable.

“So I deeply appreciate the professionalism of the Commission. I want to urge that if you invite someone and later fail to find him complicit, you must write and say so, especially in this part of the world where, if you invite people, it finds its way into the pages of newspapers because they see invitation as an indictment,” he added.