The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has denied a media report that he is plotting against the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, ahead of the Governorship and State Assembly elections in Lagos State.
A media platform (not the Editor) had claimed that the CBN boss had released N500 million in new banknotes to shore up the campaign of the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Lagos, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
Emefiele was also said to be plotting with a “billionaire retired general” from the north to enable Rhodes-Vivour to defeat the incumbent governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in Saturday’s election and the takeover Lagos from Tinubu’s influence.
But in a statement issued on Monday, CBN Spokesman, Isa Abdulmumin, described the media report as false and malicious, and asked Nigerians to ignore the fake news.
The statement stated that Emefiele has never met or even spoken with the Lagos LP governorship candidate in person or through proxy.
It added that Emefiele is not active in politics and therefore urges anyone with contrary information to prove that the CBN Governor is wrong should provide such facts.
The statement reads: “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a story 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 certain amount of money available to a political aspirant ahead of March 18, 2023 gubernatorial poll.
“We wish to inform members of the public that this story is completely false and malicious as the Governor does not know and has never met or even spoke with Mr Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour either in person or through 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 should provide such facts.
As such the Governor and team at the CBN should be allowed to focus on their assigned job with a view to achieving statutory mandates of the Bank.”
