By Sunday Micheal Ogwu

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) erupted in jubilation following the ‘sacking’ of Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate, Bala Mohammed Bello, just two and a half years after his appointment on October 5, 2023.

An investigation by Pinnacle Daily revealed that former staff and insiders described his dismissal as long overdue, citing years of alleged misconduct, controversial redeployments, and staff grievances during his tenure.

President Bola Tinubu, in a statement from his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has nominated former Securities and Exchange Commission Director-General Lamido Yuguda as Bello’s replacement, pending Senate confirmation.

Meanwhile, Bello has been appointed Special Adviser to the President on Political Economy, a move believed to both preserve political alliances and pacify northern discontent following recent appointments.

‘Bello’s SA appointment is to pacify the North’

The appointment of Bello as Special Adviser is based on two factors, according to top management sources from both the CBN and Aso Villa. Bello is believed to be a political ally of a senior security official close to the president, whose advice was sought on how best to manage the situation.

The second reason for his appointment was the need to address growing discontent in the North following Tinubu’s recent political appointments. This includes a general, Christopher Gwabin Musa’s replacement of Mohammed Badaru Abubakar as Minister of Defence and the replacement of the immediate past APC chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, by Humanitarian Affairs Minister Nentawe Yelwata.

Pinnacle Daily’s investigation revealed that the last time a similar removal took place was during the tenure of Professor Chukwuma Soludo as CBN Governor.

This incident involved Obadiah Mailafia’s tenure as Deputy Governor of the CBN, which did not last the full five years. He was appointed in May 2005 and left office in March 2007, meaning his tenure lasted approximately one year and ten months instead of five years.

It should also be recalled that in September 2023, President Bola Tinubu removed the then Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, and all four Deputy Governors serving at the time – AIshah Ahmad, Folashodun Shonubi, Edward Lametek Adamu, and Kingsley Obiora.

The journey to the inevitable end of Bello as Deputy Governor

Senior management sources from the CBN disclosed that the sacking of Bello was connected to gross misconduct, which also led to the dismissal of Ibrahim Hassan Umar, a director, three weeks ago.

According to one of the sources, “the Bank has new houses for the Governor and the Deputy Governors, but Cardoso refused to take or move into his own, which was where Emefiele stayed. So, they had to buy him another one worth billions of naira. It was this transaction that caused the problem that Bello and the Director were involved in.”

Investigation further revealed that the details of the said director,  Umar, have been removed from the CBN website. Umar, a certified fraud examiner, was confirmed by Cardoso as the Director of the Development Finance Institutions Supervision Department on 3rd March 2025, after previously serving in an acting capacity as Director of Procurement under Bello as Deputy Governor, Corporate Services.

A senior source said an internal investigation was conducted, which found the Director and others guilty, leading to their sack. The insider also stated that there were several other indictments, which had earlier forced CBN Governor Cardoso to redeploy Bello from Corporate Services to Operations in a quiet reshuffling. This reshuffling saw Ms Emem Usoro take over Corporate Services.

“There was also a need to deal with this issue in a very mature manner, so as not to negatively affect the reputation of the bank, especially considering the recent positive performance and public perception,” said a senior management source.

Further findings revealed that there was no love lost between the staff of the apex bank and Bello. He supervised the controversial redeployments of staff from the CBN headquarters in Abuja to Lagos, with many of the affected staff eventually being sacked months later.

He also oversaw the removal of several directors, eventually resulting in their dismissal. The CBN conducted what it termed “disengagements based on reorganisation”. In March, April, and May 2024, staff members ranging from executives to senior and junior staff were arbitrarily and unilaterally disengaged, with only three months’ notice in lieu of severance.

Data on forced exits under the guise of reorganisation and restructuring in March, April, and May 2024 showed that a total of 218 staff were affected. Their bank loans were deducted in full from their gratuity payments, with some staff reportedly leaving with as little as N5,000 to N6,000, as their loan deductions exceeded their gratuity payments. Some were even said to owe the bank after deductions. The matter is currently in court.

Before the reorganisation exercise, “Bello redeployed his younger brother, Bashir Bello, from the Development Finance Department—a department whose staff were constantly fearful of their fate—to the Governor’s department,” said a senior management source.

Upon resuming at the CBN, he cancelled the registration of all accredited contractors, even though they were yet to complete their two-year term. He then registered a new set of contracting firms, which included registered enterprises and ventures, rather than solely limited liability companies as required by CBN’s procurement policies.

Bello was also involved in several spats with staff members, where he was alleged to have called them “incompetent” and “criminals” during his early days as Deputy Governor. He also objected to being addressed as ‘Mr Bello’, insisting instead on being addressed as ‘Dr’, despite not holding a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), as stipulated by the Federal Ministry of Education.

In his official profile on the CBN website, it is stated that, “He was conferred with a Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa) by Commonwealth University in conjunction with the London Graduate School and a Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) in Leadership and Management by ESAE University, Republic of Benin.”

However, our investigation found that even in official documents signed by Bello, such as the 2024 financial statement of the CBN, he insists on being addressed as ‘Dr’. This is particularly notable given that Cardoso also holds an honorary degree but correctly uses ‘Mr’ as the prefix on his portrait and official documents.

This report is republished from Pinnacle Daily, read the original here.