The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Monday met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting occurs amidst a leaked audio scandal wherein the bank chief was heard discussing with his colleagues about a business deal gone bad.
It is not clear if the audio leak was the crux of the meeting the president had with Mr Emefiele. Neither Mr Emefiele nor the presidency has provided details of the meeting.
The CBN on Sunday scrambled a rebuttal to deny the report that it lost over N500 billion in private investment.
Sahara Reporters had reported a conversation involving the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele; his deputy, Edward Adamu; the Director of Finance, Dayo Arowosegbe; and the Special Adviser to the CBN Governor, Emmanuel Ukeje.
The online medium said the discussion of the top CBN officials was about a plot to cover up the huge loss after a private investment in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, went bad.
But, the bank in a statement by its spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor, denied any money was either stolen or missing from is vaults.
It admitted the audio was authentic but said they were “selective conversations.”
Mr Okorafor said contrary to insinuations that the audio recording of selective conversations by Mr Emefiele and the officials was about a fraudulent transaction, it was “simply to proffer solutions to a misunderstanding that affected the Bank’s balance sheet.”
According to Sahara Reporters, in the audio, Mr Emefiele was heard saying: “To avoid any serious problem is just, the government to have to agree to give us at least 100 billion cash but the government will not agree. They will kick against it.”
The officials also discussed the possible reaction of opposition politicians as well as the impact of their actions on the economy.
“I’ll have to think of a way out because we cannot afford it at all.
“The implications are just too many to even think about and damaging. We cannot allow this like this, we cannot,” Mr Emefiele was quoted as saying in the audio.
