… Committee Adjourns Plenary, Tuesday
The Central Bank of Nigeria, on Thursday, disclosed the reasons why the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, did not appear before the House of Representatives committee to address the concerns around the deadline set by the apex bank to stop the use of old naira notes in the country.
The affected denominations are N1000, N500 and N200, which CBN recently re-designed.
CBN in a letter transmitted to House of Reps while the plenary was in progress, on Thursday, said Emefiele was in Dakar, Senegal, and would not be able to appear before the committee.
The letter did not indicate that any senior officials of the apex bank had been delegated to represent the governor.
The speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, who read the letter to the House, immediately expressed the displeasure of the House with the manner in which the CBN handled the matter, which he said meant a total disregard for the House of the Nigerian people.
He warned that if by the end of Thursday, no official of the bank had appeared before the committee, he would be forced to issue a warrant for the arrest of Emefiele.
His words, “I give them the benefit of the doubt. Go to the committee room, the venue of the meeting, and wait. If they don’t come, then we will know the next thing to do.
“If by the end of today, there is further disregard, I will not hesitate to issue a warrant to the Inspector-General of Police to compel the attendance of the CBN Governor and all MDs who fail to respond to the invitation of the House”.
Gbajabiamila stressed that the imposition of a deadline had brought serious hardship on the citizenry, while the new notes were not available.
But, with the latest development, the Speaker appealed to his colleagues to make the sacrifice of coming to work on Tuesday next week in order for the House to dispense with the issue at hand.
Lawmakers unanimously agreed to be available at plenary on Tuesday, next week.
