Falana demands Emefiele’s sack over involvement in politics

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over his involvement in partisan politics while still in office.

Falana, who addressed a South-West youths and women conference at Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, said Emefiele’s continued stay in office as CBN governor could erode and compromise the credibility of the 2023 general elections.

Emefiele had last month declared his intention to vie for the country’s president in 2023.

He later withdrew from the race due to backlash from Nigerians.

The lawyer also warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against keeping sensitive election materials at the CBN with Emefiele sitting in office if it was interested in free and fair elections next year.

Falana said: “INEC is trying; it has deployed technology to get rid of rigging, but we can no longer keep sensitive election materials in the vault of the CBN.

“This is because the governor of the CBN is a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress.

“It has never happened anywhere in the world; this is very dangerous. The CBN governor’s power is enormous under the CBN Act, so he can’t be a politician.

“We can’t look for an alternative place to keep our electoral materials, it is the CBN governor that must be removed and whether President Buhari likes it or not, Emefiele must go.

“Some Civil Society Organisations have filed a motion against him and we will pursue it to a logical conclusion.”