The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has described as ‘fake news’ a report linking him with the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
While the report claimed that Governor Emefiele had made a certain amount of money available to the candidate ahead of the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial poll, the CBN Governor in a statement released on Monday said he did not know the LP candidate and he has never met him.
This is even as he described as untrue the aspect of the report claiming that the CBN Governor had launched a “fresh plot against President-elect,” Tinubu. Emefiele insisted that he “does not take part in politics” and should be left alone to concentrate on his assigned job of managing the Central Bank.
It’s fake news: The statement which was signed by the Acting Director of Corporate Communications of the CBN, Isa Abdulmumin, emphasized that Emefiele does not know Rhodes-Vivour. Part of the statement said:
- “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a story published in The Nation newspaper of Monday, March 13, 2023 edition, alleging that the Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele has launched a “fresh plot against President-elect”. The aforementioned story went further to allege that the Governor has made a certain amount of money available to a candidate ahead of the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial poll.
- “We wish to inform members of the public that this story is completely false and malicious as the CBN Governor does not know and has never met or even spoken with Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, either in person or through a proxy. We wish to reiterate that the CBN Governor does not take part in politics and therefore urge anyone with contrary information to prove the Governor wrong by providing any facts.
- “As such, the Governor and his team at the CBN should be allowed to focus on their assigned job with a view to achieving the statutory mandate of the Bank.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria debunks fake news #CBN pic.twitter.com/rnaPpvKZGF
— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) March 13, 2023
Not the expected message: However, many Nigerians on Twitter, where the statement was shared, were disappointed that the CBN Governor had kept mum on the status of the old naira notes and the Supreme Court ruling that the old N1,000 and N500 should continue to be legal tenders until December 31, 2023.
- Since the court gave the ruling on Friday, March 3, all attention has been on the CBN Governor to give banks a directive in compliance with the ruling.
- However, the silence of the apex bank has continued to create confusion even among bankers as they were unsure whether to keep pushing out the old notes in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling or stick to the last directive from the CBN.
- While some banks have been loading their ATMs with the old notes, the same banks are rejecting the notes as deposits, a situation that is discouraging people from accepting the old notes.