Fear Of Arrest Forces Emefiele To Appear Before House Of Rep Over New Naira Note

By Akinwale Kasali

The Governor of the  Central Bank Of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, finally bowed  to pressure from the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila led House of Representatives and appeared before the Lawmakers over the New Naira Note that has led to crisis in the past few weeks.

If Emefiele had failed to appear before the Lawmakers today, Speaker of the House, Gbajabiamila was set to issue a warrant of arrest on him. He had, on a number of tines, failed to honour the summon of the House.

On Thursday last week, Gbajabiamila threatened to mandate the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to arrest and force his appearance before the House Panel, insisting that the deadline breached the provision of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act.

The Speaker partly said, “I have no choice now. On Tuesday when we resume, we will invoke the provisions of Section 89 of the Constitution .The President has been very clear. The President gave the approval based on what he knows and what he has been told.

“We also know the President to be a man of the people. He gave his approval based on what he had been told. But we are saying – what the motion is saying – is that after the President gave his approval, how does the money get to the people? The money is not getting to the people. That is what we sought to clarify and that is exactly what we are going to do.

“So, on Tuesday, this House will follow its procedure – the normal procedure – and invoke the provisions of Section 89 to compel the governor of the CBN and the directors.”

Emefiele is appearing before the ADHOC committee set up by the House to investigate the crisis, which is chaired by Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.

Details Later…..