"Cash Crunch Provoked Customers": Falana Demands Prosecution of Emefiele, Others Over Naira Scarcity
- Femi Falana wants Godwin Emefiele and other top management of the CBN to be prosecuted
- The lawyer and activist claims that the CBN only disbursed a tiny fraction of what it mopped under the former CBN governor
- He advocates that payment be made to the families of those who died as a result of the effect of the limited supply of money.
Nigerian lawyer and activist, Femi Falana has called for criminal charges against Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the top management of the apex for alleged incitement and culpable h*micide.
He made the call in a statement titled, "CBN mopped up N3.5 trillion but disbursed N402 billion only."
The lawyer claimed when Emefiele was in office, the CBN misled Nigerians into thinking that commercial banks had received enough cash to make up for the N3.5 trillion in client deposits.
Source: UGC
Falana wants banks structure repaired
As contained in a report, the senior Nigerian advocate (SAN) also recommended that the central bank repair other banks' structures that were destroyed as a result of the ensuing rage over the limited supply of fresh naira notes.
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Falana asserts that the families of those who died as a result of the alleged instigation of the public must receive compensation.
The senior attorney claimed the affected families wanted to know the true amount given to each of the commercial banks because they were certain that the suspended governor had lied and misled Nigerians.
He claimed that the CBN later confirmed that it only sent out N402 billion in newly designed currency notes to banks in response to their request.
This, according to him, was despite the CBN's claim in January that it had given the commercial banks adequate cash in accordance with its currency design policy.
"Cash Crunch Provoked Customers": Falana Demands Prosecution of Emefiele, Others Over Naira Scarcityharges against bank employees who were suspected of undermining the new currency policy.
The statement reads:
“Based on the statement, Nigerians trooped to the banks to collect cash. As the cash was insufficient, customers became angry.
“The mass anger over the cash crunch provoked customers who burnt bank buildings and destroyed Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in some states.
“The violence, paralysed social and economic activities, and claimed not less than five lives while many others were injured.
“But for the Supreme Court, which extended the deadline for the withdrawal of the old naira notes up until December 31, 2023, the cash crunch would have made life more unbearable for the Nigerian people.”
Recall that the lawyer earlier condemned the decision of the CBN under the government of President Bola Tinubu, to float the naira.
In a report, he opposed federal government's plans to let market forces, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank determine Nigeria's foreign exchange rate.
Fuel Subsidy: Falana Gives Scorecard of Tinubu’s One Month in Office
In an earlier report by Legit.ng, Falana assessed President Bola Tinubu’s one month in office.
Falana, a guest on Channels TV’s late-night program’ Politics Today’ on Friday, Jun 30, said Tinubu’s administration took Nigerians by surprise from day one of his inauguration speech, where he declared subsidy removal.
The senior advocate said Nigerians, especially the poor masses, have felt the reverberating effect of Tinubu’s declaration on subsidy.
Source: Legit.ng
