CSOs Reject Trump-up Charges Against Emefiele

A civil society organisation under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society Group and Youth Coalition (CCSGYG) during a protest in Abuja, rejected trump-up charges against the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele by the Department of State Security Service (DSS).

The coalition led by its president, Bassey Etuk Williams, and secretary, Abubakar Ibrahim, made their position known during a rally held in Abuja, where they insisted the Apex Bank’s governor is not a terrorist as alleged.

They also said unscrupulous and disgruntled politicians are behind the trial of Mr Emefiele on trump-up charges because their evil deeds are exposed via the recent implementation of CBN policies.

Meanwhile, the CSOs expressed their displeasure over politicians’ manipulating a noble organisation such as the DSS to trump up alleged fake and unfounded charges against Emefiele who has done well to keep the economy afloat by revamping various sectors of the economy, which he has been able to fight money laundering and financing terrorism and other crimes.

William said it is a shame to mention that Emefiele is sponsoring terrorism and those alleging that have no evidence to prove it, only to go get the DSS involved unprofessionally on what the DSS itself cannot substantiate.

The statement reads in part, “Our attention was once again drawn to the recent motion Ex parte brought before a Federal High Court in Abuja by men of DSS where-in they sought relief to arrest and detain the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele based on trump up charges of financing terrorism, economic crime and crime of national security.

“This motion was surprisingly done without concrete evidence to prove the frivolous allegations against the workaholic CBN governor that the country can’t forget easily based on his several positive impactful economic and monetary policies approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for implementation.

“We are surprised to note the division that exists among top government officials of this regime. While the CBN governor was in faraway US on the entourage of President Buhari, another arm is seeking his arrest back home on trump-up charges without the consent of the President.

“The questions that beg for answer is, who gave such directive, is Mr President aware of this allegation before moving in to effect arrest via a court order? On whose interest is the DSS really working?

“The civil society movement has great respect for the DG DSS who we know as a fine gentleman but we feel that the trumped up charges are a product of unfounded petition generated by unscrupulous politicians whose fraudulent activities have been caught short by the wonderful and brilliant policies of central bank governor.

“We wonder why they left their main mandate and allowed the troubled political class to influence their professional ethics.

“The coalition is surprised by the high level of plot to frame the CBN governor at this time. There has been a coordinated attempt to rubbish him, as we all note that this started via one Hon. Kazaure when he went about screaming missing N89 trillion stamp duty money was traceable to the same man, even though Presidency has come out to disown the said committee the political class didn’t rest as they moved again using the men of DSS.

“We are shocked that this can happen even while he was away with President Buhari. The question is why then did they allow someone allegedly financing terrorism to be on the delegation of Mr President?

“The CBN governor has served diligently for seven years and the DSS within this period didn’t discover this until the recently introduced monetary policy, a policy that majorly affects most of our political class.

The Coalition also pointed that, “This is an affront on the government of President Buhari and we implore Presidency to get to the root of the move aimed to further ridicule and bring to disrepute the office of the President.”

The Coalition also maintained that this drama is traceable to “When you fight corruption, definitely it will fight back as we can see over this period how Godwin Emefiele has been in the eye of the storm for trying to further salvage our economy and standardized our Naira notes via the introduction of new notes duly approved by President Buhari.

“We call on the naysayers to allow him to concentrate on his job and demand that all these trump-up charges should be dropped against him in moving the nation forward.

“Despite these allegations, he was still cleared to travel with Mr President, this further shows the secret plot to want to indict him to remove him from office which informs why they approached court without the knowledge of the President.”

However, the Coalition warned that it would not sit down and allow any security agency to detain Emefiele against the policy approved by President Muhammadu Buhari to block loopholes created by corrupt Nigerians and take advantage to perpetrate their evil at the detriment of the masses.

“This flip-flop in government activities must stop now. We as a group, hereby reiterate our unalloyed support for President Muhammadu Buhari and CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele while urging the CBN Governor to further the implementation of his policies aimed at further combating inflation.

“While we warn the detractors and naysayers to allow him to deliver on his mandate, the era of cash stuffing at home has gone and won’t come back again.

“We won’t be deterred to take further actions if this blackmail to remove him from the office does not stop now,” it added.