The Arewa Youth Assembly, AYA, a socio-economic and socio-political group has stated that the resignation or sacking of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, will save the nation from further economic meltdown.
SaharaReporters had in May 2019 made public a phone conversation of Emefiele; his deputy, Edward Lametek Adamu; Director for Finance, Dayo M. Arowosegbe and one of the Special Advisers to the CBN Governor, Emmanuel Ukeje discussing how to cover up the loss of over N500 billion stolen from the CBN in a private investment that collapsed.
Two audio files, exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, revealed how the governor and top officials of the apex bank discussed plots to conceal the loss of huge sums of money in a Dubai investment.
The CBN claimed the audio conversation was genuine but no money was missing from the bank.
Isaac Okorafor, Director Corporate Communications had said: “The selective conversation being circulated was simply a discussion to ascertain why the auditors took that position and next steps to resolve it.
Obviously, it soon became clear that a state government’s loan cannot be classified as ‘bad’ or ‘irrecoverable’ when the state still exists and getting FAAC allocations.”
However, in a petition written by Emefiele to the Inspector General of Police, he confirmed that the audio was authentic and this time raised the alarm that his phone had been bugged and that there was a breach of security at the apex bank. He also asked the Inspector General of Police to investigate the audio leak.
Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Mohammed Salihu Danlami and Abdulsalam Kazeem; Speaker and Deputy Speaker of AYA respectively alongside other group’s leaders urged the CBN Governor to resign over his alleged inability to stabilize the country’s bleeding economy.
The group said, “For the umpteenth time, some of the issues we have raised which our attackers and their sponsors have not been able to intellectually counter are enumerated below for the purpose of those seeing them for the first time:
“Mr. Emefiele met the naira exchanging against the American dollar at 1$ to ₦170 but today under his stewardship of the apex bank, it is 1$ to ₦575. This happens as a result of poor economic policies of the CBN and it has been postulated that if nothing is done, a dollar will exchange for N1, 000 before the end of this year. That will not be good for Nigerians who struggle daily to earn their living.
“It was gathered that the CBN failed to remit about N800 billion to the Federal Government and hasn’t submitted the audited report of the apex bank to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation since 2010.
“Under the watch of Mr. Emefiele as CBN boss, ₦150 billion NIRSAL loan money got missing. Dishing of Bureau-de-Change (BDC) licenses to unprofessional agents, most of who are his friend’s allies, has further plunged the naira into further devaluation since these have only used these windows for selfish purposes at the expense of other 200 million Nigerians.
“Misappropriation of funds of the bank to serve his selfish secret presidential ambition. ₦500 billion stolen from the CBN towards the end of 2018 in a private Dubai investment that went sour should be properly investigated.
“The question that keeps begging for an answer is that, why is it that the same set of persons who have never seen anything right about this administration and will always jump up in the attack of Mr President via every medium available to them, are the same persons defending the CBN Governor?
“We ask that Mr. President sacks Emiefele now before it becomes too late to reshape the Nigerian economy in such a way that it has a positive impact on the life of a common man in the street. Mr. Emefiele has constituted himself a mole in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Mr. Emefiele has demonstrated he is a cog in the wheel of progress by making rubbish of all of Mr. President’s lofty initiatives aimed at bettering the lives of Nigerians, thus pitching many Nigerians against Mr. President’s agenda.
