From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Group, Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA) on Sunday cautioned the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emfiele over his alleged attempt to pitch the group against President Mohammadu Buhari.
The group at a press conference at popular Arewa House, Kawo, Kaduna, on Sunday, reiterated its earlier call on the apex bank to resign his position over his “inability to come up with solution to the nose-diving economic quagmire” the country found itself under his stewardship.
Mohammed Salihu Danlami and Abdulsalam Kazeem; Speaker and Deputy Speaker of AYA respectively who address newsmen alongside other groups leaders alleged that, Mr Emefiele was trying to pitch Mr Prsident against them to cover his inability to pilot the country’s economy affairs which gave rise to daily fall of naira against dollar and other foreign exchange.
“Our respect and loyalty will always remain with the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari who up till date is a worthy father of all.
“It is germane to add that Arewa Youth Assembly is the only non-political youth group that celebrated Mr President’s 78th birthday at the NAF conference centre, Jabi, Abuja, without been financed or bankrolled by any individual or group, no external support from anywhere to do so, such as ours love and believe in Mr President.
“Our desire to celebrate Mr President who works his head every day and night at ensuring that he delivers on his mandate and push Nigeria forward is unflinching.
$The thugs and miscreants hired by Mr Emefiele are by their actions dragging the name of President Muhammadu Buhari in the mud. Though this is nothing new because this same class of people are the ones who criticize President Buhari’s led federal government at every opportunity right from the inception of his administration.
“We suspect that Mr Emefiele is the one who is sponsoring every of their smear campaign against Mr President and everyone who stands for the truth.
“It is noteworthy that, this same set of people who claim to be defending the CBN Governor cannot come out with superior arguments on issues we raised and, we urge the Presidential media team to take a closer look at each of these points for action”, they said.
Some of the issues raised include”the drastic and steep devaluation of the Naira against other currencies even in Africa, Mr Emefiele met the naira exchanging against the US dollar at 1$ to ₦170 but today under his stewardship, it is 1$ to ₦575.
“This happens as a result of poor economic policies of the CBN and it has been postulated that if nothing is done a dollar will exchange for N1000 before the end of this year. That will not be good for Nigerians who struggle daily to earn their living.
“It was gathered that the CBN failed to remit about N800 billion to naira to the Federal Government and haven’t submitted the audited report of the apex bank to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation since 2010.
“Under the watch of Mr Emefiele as CBN boss, ₦150bn NIRSAL loan money got missing.
“Dishing of Bureau – de – Change (BDC) licenses to unprofessional agents most of who are his friend’s allies, has further plunged the naira into further devaluation since these have only used these windows for selfish purposes at the expense of other 200 million Nigerians.
“Misappropriation of funds of the bank to serve his selfish secret presidential ambition.
“₦500bn stolen from the CBN towards the end of 2018 in a private Dubai investment that went sour should be properly investigated.
“We wonder why the issues raised are not been addressed, rather, they choose to use thugs and miscreants to engage us on a smear campaigns that hold no water. They launched media campaigns against us publishing and airing all manners of falsehood against us to turn Mr President against us”, the group alleged.