A group of Concern Citizens of Sokoto State (CCSS) has urged Mr Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to resign within 72 hours or face legal action.
The group made the call in a letter dated Feb. 2, 2023 addressed to the CBN governor, a copy of which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto on Friday.
The letter, signed by Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi, the CCSS National Coordinator, said the decision was taken after reviewing the whole episode of Emefiele’s meeting with the members of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
It alleged that the CBN governor’s comments and interaction does not suggest his qualification a day longer to lead the institution.
“Our reason for coming to this conclusion is when a member of the Assembly committee referred you to Section 20 of the CBN Act.
“You admitted that the Act exists. This means you might not know about the Act until your attention was called.
“So, if that’s the case, it means you are not supposed to lead an institution which rules and regulations you are not conversant with,“ it said.
The CCSS added that if the CBN governor was aware of the Act and deliberately failed to draw the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari and the public, then it “is an act of sabotage to the leaders and citizens“
Meanwhile, Emefiele, has appealed to Nigerians to show understanding adding that the redesigned notes will circulate and be accessible.
Emefiele made the appeal at a special media briefing on the new naira notes, on Friday, in Lagos.
He noted he was seeing the protests and arguments surrounding the difficulty citizens were facing in accessing the new notes.
”I understand the agitation and I’m begging in God’s name, we on our knees begging people to please show understanding. They should be calm.
”In our meetings with the banks, we have told them to set up tents and chairs, give people numbers, which I’m sure some people will say it is old fashioned.
”But at this time that we’re trying to get the currency in circulation amongst everybody, people have to have numbers and they come in under a queueing arrangements that when you come in you get served, if it finishes, just be patient.
”By tomorrow, when you come back, they will start from where they stopped, you will not be cheated.
”Let’s just be calm and adopt a good queueing system, the assurance we give is that it will eventually go round.
”Eventually the limits will be raised and eventually the limits will be removed and people will be able to conduct their business transactions in a way that it has always been in the past,” Emefiele said.
On high charges by the Point of Sale (PoS) agents on every transaction made by their customers, the apex bank governor urged banks to stop the charges on PoS.
”I am going to be calling a meeting with the banks this evening or by tomorrow, if those charges go to or those charges have been charged through the bank, we are going to have an arrangement with even telcos to see how those charges can actually at this time be stopped.
”Those charges at this time should be stopped. So, if we know whatever you are making that you’re not making because we stopped it, we can collect it somewhere and look for a way to pay you.
”But we don’t want you to continue to create pain on those who want to use alternative channels when they cannot have cash in their pocket.
”We will go into this later this night or even tomorrow, we’re going to call a meeting of both the banks and the mobile networks; at this time nobody should be charged, if you are charged, we will need to know about it.
”But we would want this service to continue to be offered. Whatever it is in terms of volume and number that you have carried out. We will look for away to pay you your money,” he said.
NAN reports that the redesigned naira notes comprising N200, N500 and N1,000, came into use on Dec. 15, 2022, after they were unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on Nov. 23, 2022 in Abuja.
The CBN had earlier fixed Jan. 31 as deadline for the collection of old naira notes, but later extended the time limit to Feb. 10.
The CBN governor had said the extension was to allow Nigerians that had naira legitimately earned and trapped, the opportunity to deposit their money for exchange.
The governor had ordered banks to load their Automated Teller Machines with the new naira notes to ensure Nigerians had access to them.
