BREAKING: DSS grills NIRSAL boss, Masanawa over Alleged corruption

Abbas Masanawa, the president of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, has reportedly been detained by the Department of State Services (DSS).

According to Peoples Gazette, he was reportedly arrested for his alleged role in the ongoing corruption probe of ousted CBN chief Godwin Emefiele.

According to knowledgeable DSS insiders, Mr. Masanawa was apprehended three weeks ago and has stayed there while their investigation was ongoing.

If he has retained attorneys to represent him in the dispute is not immediately evident. Requests for comments from an NIRSAL spokesperson were not immediately responded to.

The reason for Mr. Masanawa’s detention is thought to be related to his position as managing director of NSPMC, or Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company.

He reportedly resigned from NSPMC because it came to light that he was running for governor while still in charge of the country’s printing and minting operations as a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

The printing and minting of the country’s currency notes, coins, and high-level security papers is done by the NSPMC, a division of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

It wasn’t immediately obvious why President Bola Tinubu authorized Mr. Masanawa’s imprisonment without first suspending him from his position, especially given that his three-week detention has severely restricted NIRSAL’s ability to function.

A presidential spokesman declined comments.

Recall that Mr Emefiele was fired as CBN governor on June 9 and was arrested the next day by the SSS, which has kept him in custody ever since, in defiance of federal court orders.

A spokesperson for the DSS declined to speak on Mr Masanawa’s detention, which stood at 22 days as of Friday morning.

“No comment,” Peter Afunaya said in a message to The Gazette Friday morning.

Following Mr. Tinubu’s appointment of Jim Obazee as an anti-graft specialist to find fraud at the CBN and other government agencies, Mr. Masanawa was arrested.

According to reports, the Obazee-led team has opened an investigation into all pertinent agencies that are alleged to have colluded with the CBN and its numerous parastatals.

A former deputy general manager at Zenith Bank, Mr Masanawa served as special adviser to Mr Emefiele and steadily moved up the rung to become the executive director at the NSPMC.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him as the organisation’s managing director in September 2018.

In May 2022, Mr Mansanawa declared his intention to contest the governorship election in Katsina without stepping down from office. He promptly resigned from his position following The Gazette’s story on his misconduct.

After he failed to clinch the ticket, Mr Emefiele appointed him as the new head of NIRSAL, following the removal of the agency’s former boss Aliyu Abdulhameed amid corruption allegations. Mr Abdulhameed denied wrongdoing.