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CBN Governor Yet To Resume Office, Remains Abroad Pursuing Asylum

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2023

The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN governor Godwin Emefiele has reportedly failed to resume official duties after his approved vacation period.

This is as the apex bank governor has concluded plans to seek asylum in the United Kingdom over developing threats to his position and personal safety from the State Security Service, Peoples Gazette reports.

However, the time when he’s filing his asylum application is not known, but he is ready.

The Eagle reports that Emefiele had in December received presidential approval to proceed on vacation until January 9.

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The apex bank chief, who was billed to resume work today, had not shown up as of noon on Monday and that he is not on his way back to the country, Sources, told Peoples Gazette.

The tension surrounding his much-expected return borders around the uncertainty that has enveloped the economy, especially the capital markets.

According to the source, the bank’s chief is still shuttling between the UK and the United States. The situation is still not very comfortable for him, per a source familiar with the matter.

Emefiele, who has been forced to remain abroad due to plots to implicate him as a financier of terrorism, has been weighing his options there.

People familiar with his schedule said the CBN governor departed Nigeria between December 9 and 10, then made an appearance with President Muhammadu Buhari during a well-publicised trip to Washington that ended on December 17.

Sources say that Emefiele would be willing to return to Nigeria if the president could offer protection from state goons at the SSS.

Allegations have flared that the covert police secured the backing of Buhari and other high-ranking government officials to launch an attack against the CBN governor.

However, Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High on December 13, 2022, ruling declined to authorise an arrest warrant sought by the SSS to take Emefiele into custody.

Tsoho said the secret police had failed to establish its claims against Emefiele, while also obscuring his identity in order to deceive the court into granting an erroneous motion.

The president has not taken a definitive position yet on the stalemate.

Emefiele’s decision to redesign the naira and limit cash withdrawals, presumably intended to curb vote-buying at the 2023 elections, may have earned him strong political adversaries and landed him in a war with other loyalists of the regime.