Former Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), Jim Obazee, has threatened to sue any person or media house that peddles rumours of his involvement in an imaginary financial impropriety. He described some publications against him as outrageous falsehood, noting that he was convicted of sexual assault.

Obazee, who was recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu as a special investigator to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and related entities, said he would use the instrumentality of the law to ventilate his rights against publishers of the false and defamatory report.

Speaking through his lawyer, Anayo Mbah, in Lagos, yesterday, Obazee said he needed to set the record straight following the negative attacks by some publications trying to defame his person and character since his appointment on July 28, 2023, as the Special Investigator to the CBN. He noted that some of the media houses that published the material are already taking them down having seen that they are false.

Mbah said that the offending publications, titled, ‘Jim Obazee: The Many Controversies of Tinubu’s CBN Special Investigator,’ erroneously noted that Obazee was ordered by the Senate Committee on Public Account to refund into the Federation Account, N94 million, comprising N66 million paid to Japaul Oil and Maritime Services for an office space at Japaul Building and N28, 765,842.11 raised and paid through 64 payment vouchers without the internal audit stamps and dates by FRC.

He said the publicationspresented his client as a criminal, who was convicted of sexual assault, linked to corruption and siphoning of public funds. He said: “We wouldn’t waste energy on the news peddled by these media platforms, as the initial publication of same is already a matter of several suits against three frontline newspapers in the country.

“Our client will explore provisions of the law to protect and ventilate his rights appropriately against publishers of the false and defamatory information. They shall face the wrath of the law in due course.

“It is on record that Obazee was removed from office on January 9, 2017, in a controversial manner by the Federal Government via a statement signed by Garba Shehu from the Presidency. The 64 vouchers were issued during the tenure of the late David Asakpohia, the former Executive Secretary of the FRC, after Obazee had been relieved of his office. We will stop at this, as the matter is already in court; but we will take decisive actions permissive in law against the current peddlers of this news without verification.”