Emefiele Behind Delayed Release Of New Naira Notes To Banks – Says Source
By Onome Naomi
Following delayed delivery of the newly redesigned Naira to commercial banks, fingers are now pointing in the direction of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emiefele, as being responsible as he was said to be set to release about N30 billion new redesigned currency notes to Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, the Presidential Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the next 3 days going by their agreement.
The release is to be routed through the Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr. Roosevelt Ogbonna, in a ploy to provide financial advantage to the PDP presidential candidate following the insistence of CBN of not extending the deadline of January 31 for the exchange of old notes.
Reliable sources within the apex bank revealed that the huge sum to be released to Alhaji Atiku was responsible for the scarcity of the newly redesigned notes in commercial banks and Automated Teller Machines, ATMs of banks.
“Most of the banks don’t just have the newly designed currency as the available quantity for distribution is being warehouse on the instruction of CBN governor. It is now clear where the fund is to be channelled and why there persists scarcity with less than a week to the CBN imposed deadline,” the source stated.
It will be recalled that the stated goal of the redesigned currency and limitation on withdrawal was aimed at discouraging money influence on the forthcoming elections as well as promotion of cashless economy.
Read Also:Extend deadline for the exchange of old naira notes till July 31 — Senate urges CBN.
In recent times, Mr. Emiefele has been involved in many controversies, including allegations of terrorism financing with the Directorate of State Service seeking legal means to investigate him.
