A prominent minister who served with former President Muhammadu Buhari, alongside his four other colleagues (Names withheld) has reportedly moved against Tinubu’s special investigator, Jim Obazee, over plan to invite the former ministers for questioning.

Sources close to the Special Investigator and his team hinted that they are about to conclude their probe of the CBN and the illegal acquisition of some commercial banks by certain individuals with the submission of their report to President Tinubu.

The other phase, it was gathered, would be to move to the next phase, which involves the extension of invitations to individuals who may have questions to answer.

It was gathered that the Buhari minister and his colleagues, however, decided to quickly move against Obazee after they got wind of a letter of summon being prepared by the office for the immediate past prominent minister to appear for questioning over certain matters bothering on fraud while he was in office.

Their move, it was learnt, was to "quickly counter" the Special Investigator's plan to invite them for the next phase of the probe.

Sources said they have therefore embarked on a "massive and ferocious media war" in collaboration with some Presidency officials and other top Federal Government functionaries to prevail on President Tinubu to stop the probe.

The former minister, who was said to have Buhari's ears throughout his eight-year tenure, and his four other colleagues, are allegedly afraid that the next stage of the probe would unearth their atrocities while in government.

It was further alleged that the probe will also unmask them as collaborators with the embattled former governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, who is currently undergoing trial in court for various charges bothering on large scale corruption.

Obazee, it was gathered, was rounding off his investigation of the Central Bank of Nigeria under Emefiele and commences the next round of his probe of the other government businesses.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 259 anti-corruption, civil society and human rights groups, Coalition for Transparency and Economic Reforms (COTER), has called on President Tinubu not to allow anyone or groups to rubbish the credibility already secured for his administration in the international community through the invaluable works of the investigator.

COTER said President Tinubu should not accede to the current shenanigans, malicious campaigns and unpatriotic requests by some individuals and groups in the country for the sack of the CBN Special Investigator.

Rather, the Coalition said the President should give an indefinite extension to the work of the Special Investigator and his team.

It stated that President Tinubu should have expected the current fight back by corruption through the campaign of calumny now being launched against the person and office of Obazee.

The group however said no matter how highly placed these individuals and groups behind the attack on Obazee are, the President should discountenance their "inappropriate requests and demands for the head of the Special Investigator" who had been conscientious in the national assignment.

COTER also urged President Tinubu to warn Presidency officials and other top Federal Government functionaries to steer clear of what the Special Investigator has been doing successfully since his appointment.

COTER's President, Dr Peter Chima Chukwu and General Secretary, Mallam Auta Ibrahim Koko, stated these in a statement in reaction to the allegations of high-handedness, undue intimidation and witch-hunt of top CBN officials and commercial banks executives by the Special Investigator and his team, whose mandate they alleged had since expired.

The coalition noted that the President should not give room for any intervention by any individual or groups in the functions of the Special Investigator.

According to them, "Obazee has successfully been laundering the image of this country and the President Bola Tinubu-led administration internationally through his bold and courageous work as CBN Special Investigator.

“So, some top Presidency and other top Government officials cannot now come and attempt to usurp that office or the Special Investigator's role through the malicious campaigns and demands through these faceless groups, after Obazee has taken all the risks to achieve so much in recovering funds from the Federal Government's coffers and the vaults of the CBN.

"These top Presidency and Federal Government officials should face their own jobs, which they've yet to excel in and discharge effectively. They should stop being meddlesome interlopers. Unfortunately, the jobs Mr President gave these Presidency and top Federal Government officials, they've not done well in the first place.

"But if they refuse to be called to order, COTER shall not hesitate to mobilise all the true civil society groups in Nigeria against all of them.

"We commend the Federal Government for fishing Obazee out for this onerous and Herculean job and we urge the President to adequately appreciate him with a special National honour/award.

"The Special Investigator should also rather be considered for higher national assignments because we have the confidence in him, that he'll always deliver.