The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested Kingsley Obiora, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of economic policy.

His recent arrest is a sign of more arrests in the apex bank and among top public and private sector actors in the coming weeks, a top CBN source told our reporter.

His arrest was said to have been triggered by confessional statements of his former boss, the suspended  CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele.

Though Obiora worked under Emefiele, their relationship in the latter part of Emefiele’s reign was said to be cold with Obiora sidelined by Emefiele as he ‘helped’ members of the Muhammadu Buhari cabal and their cronies “access to CBN vault,” a source once told Political Economist NG.

At the early days of Emefiele’s trouble with security personnel under Buhari, Obiora was highly tipped to be a perfect replacement for Emefiele.

Based on his cold war with Emefiele, Obiora was said to being primed as a principal witness against his former boss. Obiora, born March 06, 1976, resumed as a Deputy Governor in the Central Bank of Nigeria on March 02, 2020.

Before this, he was an alternate executive director in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC, USA. In this capacity, he was a member of the executive board, collectively responsible for conducting the daily operations of the IMF. He also assisted in representing the interests of 23 African Countries, including Nigeria, on the board.

Abbas Masanawa, another top CBN official, was arrested recently  arrested and held in the custody of the DSS, seeking to determine the steepness of Eme.

Emefiele has been in the custody of the DSS since June 10, 2023, a day after President Bola Tinubu removed him from office.