NIRSAL Boss, Abbas Umar Masanawa
By Our Reporter
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, Abbas Umar Masanawa is literally swimming in troubled waters.
NATIONAL WAVES learnt that Masanawa is currently cooling his heels in the cell of the Department of State Services (DSS) over his alleged connection with the ongoing investigation of the embattled former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
It would be recalled that Masanawa’s predecessor, Aliyu Abdulhameed, allegedly mismanaged over N5bn meant for farmers in Kano and Jigawa states and how he was fired later by the former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Masanawa was the Managing Director of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) popularly known as ‘The MINT’ before he was appointed to succeed Abdulhammeed.
The senior banker, who reportedly sought to contest the governorship of Katsina State under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2022 was a close ally of Emefiele.
He was the executive director in charge of finance and strategy of the same company before he was recommended to head the company by the suspended apex bank governor.
Speaking to Daily Trust anonymously, a security source said the ally of Emefiele, who was picked up in his Abuja residence was fingered in the investigation of Emefiele and the one ongoing at the headquarters of the apex bank.
The spokesman of DSS, Peter Afunanya, was yet to reply to a text message sent to him for official confirmation and further details as at when filing this report.