Emefiele: CSOs Warns Reps On Threat Of Arrest  

As controversy continued to trail circumstances surrounding the availability of the new naira notes and the inability of the CBN governor to appear before the committee set up by the House of Representatives leading to the threat of arrest by the Speaker of the House, a coalition of Civil society organizations under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society Groups on Good Governance, Budget and Accountability has issued a warning to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajiabiamila to stop using threat of arrest on the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele describing such threats as a resort to cheap blackmail.

The Coalition in a statement signed by its Director General Amb. Dr. Emmanuel Nkweke and made available to newsmen said it is wrong for the Speaker to issue such threats considering the fact that the CBN governor has not committed any offence.

The Coalition absolved the governor of any wrong doing considering that he has at various times informed Nigerians that the apex bank has made available sufficient amounts of the new notes to commercial banks in the country. The group rather pointed fingers at the commercial banks for sabotaging the good works of the CBN.

The group reiterated it’s support for the printing of new notes stressing that it is in the overall interest of the country. “It is a known fact that if you fight corruption, it will come back as a hydra headed monster to fight back and that is the scenerio today. The good efforts of the governor has exposed how people in power pile up money that should be circulation in ware houses and septic tanks with large chunk of these cash wasted. Nigerians are witnesses to this shame and are happy with what the CBN is doing but like we have stated earlier, theses powerful men are not finding it funny and the best they think they can do is to malign and threaten the CBN boss. This utterly wrong and we at the Civil Society, will not fold out hands. We are urging the Speaker of the House to stay with the people and avoid being used by the enemies of Nigeria to sabotage the good efforts of the apex bank” the statement added.

The group urged Nigerians to always learn to beat deadlines and not to be depending on extensions.