Central Bank of Nigeria on Saturday said that its governor, Godwin Emefiele, has not been making his official travels in private chartered flights.
Spokesperson of the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said that was the practice for several years in the past, it was stopped by the bank since the 90s.
Okorafor said, private and official chartered flights was used then “in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote, not-easily- accessible locations or in cases where timing might be critical to matters of urgent national importance.“
According to him, this practice, was in place when Charles Soludo and Lamido Sanusi were in office as CBN Governors to meet urgent national assignments, it was stopped long before Mr. Emefiele came into office.
The spokesman further explained the to meet these urgent assignments, including currency movement, he said the CBN had to acquire a dedicated jet in the 90s in recognizing the critical need for it to have smooth operations nationwide.
Following the country’s economic downturn in 2015, and the cost-cutting stance of present administration, the CBN governor ordered the stoppage of the use of chartered flights by the apex bank.
“Since then, neither Mr. Emefiele nor any of the Deputy Governors has used the services of private chartered flights and the CBN has not paid a kobo for private jet services,” Okorafor explained.
“Mr. Emefiele and indeed other principal officers of the CBN have religiously maintained the modest disposition of using regular flights, including doing several trips by road to and from different parts of the country,” he added.
On Emefiele’s Mother’s Burial
Okorafor said that Emefiele, members of his immediate family, nor other principal officers of the Central Bank used a private jet during the burial of the CBN governor’s mother, rather, the bank insisted the CBN governor and his family used the services of a commercial airline, Arik from Lagos to Benin City for his mother’s burial .
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