Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has arrived at the House of Representatives to meet with its Ad-hoc Committee on the new currency policy.
The House had invited the CBN Governor over the crisis caused by the new naira notes.
The committee headed by the House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, was set up to liase with the CBN and commercial banks on the implementation of the policy.
It had earlier invited Emefiele to speak on issue and called for extension of the January 31st deadline, which would have expired today.
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, had last week threatened to issue a warrant for Emefiele’s arrest over his repeated failures to answer at least four summons from the Representatives.
The House had shelved its plan to go on break for the presidential and National Assembly elections, which was to commence on Thursday, over the CBN governor’s failure to answer the last summons issued to him by the committee.
Gbajabiamila had said he will mandate the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to arrest and force the CBN Governor’s appearance before the panel, insisting that the deadline breached the provision of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act.
However, the CBN had already extended the period by 10 days to enable Nigerians deposit their old N1000, N500 and N200 notes,the House had insisted on Emefiele’s appearance.
The outcome of today’s meeting will determine whether or not the period will be extended or not.
