Ex-CBN Deputy Governor, Tunde Lemo Mentioned In N25 Billion Fraud -“It’s Politically Motivated” Says Source Close To Him

A one-time Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Tunde Lemo is probably not finding things easy at the moment as he has been fingered in a N25 Billion fraud, which he allegedly perpetrated with some other people during his days in the apex bank.
The revelation is coming at a time Mr. Lemo, who once boasted that he would be the Governor of the CBN someday, was planning to contest for the governorship election of his home state, Ogun under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Sources told us last week that the fraudulent activities were allegedly swept under the carpet for years, and would have gone unnoticed save for a comprehensive auditing of the bank recently, which revealed that Mr. Lemo and some staffers of the bank actually fraudulently enriched themselves.
“What we heard was that Mr. Tunde Lemo was involved in some shoddy deals in the bank, and that he enjoyed the evil acts, while it lasted. I can tell you that Mr. Lemo was accused of collecting 10% from contractors, who had dealings with the bank and it was discovered that some contracts were inflated to cater for his own share in his days in the bank,” said a reliable source.
The governorship aspirant, who has allegedly gone on a spending spree to realize his ambition in 2015, was said to have gone to a prominent monarch (oba) in Lagos to intercede with the powers that be on his behalf to save him from the accompanying consequences of the deals and the expected public embarrassment.
Another reliable source revealed that Mr. Lemo used part of the said money to establish a highbrow school for his wife, and that the whole matter got to the once powerful banker as a rude shock.
“He never envisaged that the whole matter would be exposed, but now the deed has been done and the anti-graft agencies have been alerted, it is certain that they are doing their investigations and Mr. Lemo would soon be invited to tell them what he knows about the deal,” a source told us.
This allegation was however, punctured by sources close to the erstwhile top banker, who put the whole thing at the doorsteps of ‘some mischievous opponents, who want to bring this man down so that he would not achieve his political ambition.’
According to him; “This is a cheap blackmail and you will soon discover that Mr. Tunde Lemo is not the type that would be involved in shoddy deals. God has blessed him, he rose through the ranks and he almost became the governor of the CBN before he retired. He can never do such a thing and God would definitely see him through at this trying period. Those trying to implicate him should know that truth will definitely prevail very soon.”
Meanwhile, we also gathered from the grapevine last week that some staffers of the CBN were recently sacked for involving in the recycling of mutilated money that were meant to be burnt by the apex bank.
Informed sources revealed that the staffers, some of whom were in top positions in the bank, stole amount of money running into millions of naira with a view to taking them back into the system through the back door before they were eventually caught and given the boot.