Nigeria’s top banker sacked over missing oil funds

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has suspended the nation’s Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi for “financial recklessness and misconduct.”

The dismissal announcement came on Thursday while Sanusi was away on official assignment in Niamey, the capital of the Niger Republic.

He reportedly returned to the country later in the day only to be approached by members of the State Security Service (SSS) and interrogated for several hours.

This is while Sanusi, who was named central bank governor of the year for 2010 by Banker magazine, has vowed to challenge the suspension.

In a quick reaction to his suspension, Sanusi said Thursday that he would go to court to determine the propriety of the president’s power to sack him.

Sanusi reportedly caused shockwaves in Nigeria when he alleged that $20 billion in Nigeria’s oil revenue had gone missing.

Nigeria’s state oil firm has denied failing to account for the money, saying the claim was “unsubstantiated.”

Meanwhile, Foreign exchange, bond and money markets have stopped trading because of uncertainty caused by the move.

Reports say that Sanusi’s allegations threaten to expose high-level fraud in Nigeria’s notoriously corrupt oil sector.

Earlier this month, Sanusi told a senate committee that out of $67 billion of Nigerian oil sold between January 2012 and July 2013, $20 billion had not been accounted for.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said the allegations showed “little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry.”

Sanusi’s deputy Sarah Alade is to replace him until a new governor is appointed.