Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has asked the federal government to immediately obey the ruling of the Supreme Court on the naira redesign policy, saying there is no alternative to the government.
He also asked banks to release the deposits of Nigerians in their custody upon demand forthwith as there will be grave consequences for continued seizure of the hard-earned monies of citizens.
Akeredolu, who was reacting to the apex court’s verdict on the matter, said the Ondo State government would not hesitate to proceed against persons and institutions whose activities impede the ability to discharge statutory obligations to the people.
While he criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele and minister of justice and attorney general of the federation Abubakar Malami for misleading the president on the policy, he saluted the industry and courage of justices of the Supreme Court for the well-considered ruling.
In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Abuja yesterday, Akeredolu said, “The government and the people of Ondo State received the news of the ruling of the Supreme Court on the punitive implementation of a monetary policy hurriedly packaged to achieve a pernicious end by Mr Godwin Emefiele, with great relief. The position of the apex court is in tandem with our press releases on the subject matter.”
He added that it was deplorable to witness small businesses collapse with unbelievable rapidity, adding that Nigerians had been regaled with tales of the dehumanisation of ordinary people who had been forced to strip naked in banking halls, weeping to be given their monies kept with the banks.
“Some have lost their lives, needlessly, for being unable to access their deposits in the banks upon demand,” he said.
He added that the governor of the CBN acted most irresponsibly when he claimed to be exercising powers which the CBN Act does not invest in his office.
“There is no gain asserting the obvious. The whole policy may have been well conceived. Its implementation has been politically driven. The CBN governor is a partisan of injustice and oppression. Most governments, perhaps with the exception of a negligible few motivated by the possibility of deriving unexpressed political advantages, cannot meet simple obligations to their citizens. It is most unfortunate,” he added.
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