HURIWA Asks DSS To Allow Court Decide Emefiele’s Fate

Human Rights Writers Asso­ciation of Nigeria, (HURIWA), civil rights advocacy group on Tuesday, asked the Department of State Services (DSS) to speed up investigation and immedi­ately let the court decide the fate of Mr. Godwin Emefiele, suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

HURIWA, in a statement by Comrade Emmanuel On­wubiko, its National Coordi­nator, warned the secret police against the media trial of the suspended apex bank chief af­ter he was suspended on Friday by President Bola Tinubu who immediately said the bank’s Deputy Governor of Opera­tions, Folashodun Shonubi, should resume office in an act­ing capacity.

The group said after the DSS confirmation on Saturday that Emefiele was in its custody in Abuja, the secret police should quit media trial and do the needful by charging him to court for alleged terrorism financing, money laundering and other suspected crimes if the agency had any shreds of evidences linking him to those offences and set him free to avoid making him a political detainee and a victim of per­secution.

Onwubiko: “The suspen­sion of Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was long overdue before it eventually on Friday. Although, we expected Pres­ident Bola Ahmed Tinubu to apply the principles of rule of law in his official dealings. We acknowledge that there are lingering issues of whether the President has such powers of suspending the CBN Governor without the approval of two third majority of the National Assembly or not.

“However, the CBN gover­nor had subjected millions of Nigerians to pains and suffer­ings due to his crass incompe­tence and failure to follow the proper channels in exercis­ing his functions and powers as the governor of CBN. He practically made himself the alpha and the omega and did not care about the downward trends and serious devaluation of the naira.

“During his time, Emefiele ran Nigeria’s financial systems aground with bad fiscal and monetary policies foisted on Ni­gerians including the notorious recent naira cash swap policy.

“He would later, through the backdoor, obtain the N100 million Nomination and Ex­pression of Interest Forms of the ruling All Progressives Congress for the presidential primary in 2022, a move in clear contravention of Section 9 and 11 of the CBN Act. Yet, then President Muhammadu Buhari did not think it deem to sack Emefiele but rather in­dulged his shenanigans till his (Buhari’s) last minute in office.”