A former governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda has called for the arrest and prosecution of the minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and some financial institutions Chief Executive officers (CEOs) involved in the corruption scandal of the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
The suspended Nigeria’s apex Bank Chief, has being in custody of the Department of the State Service (DSS) since June 9, 2023, after he was arrested by operatives of the DSS in Lagos State, some hours after he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu.
Yuguda who also was former Minister of State for transport, made the assertion when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
The former Governor of Bauchi State who did not give the names of the Bank CEOs involved in corruption, alleged that “the Act or the law that gave birth to the present dispensation in the CBN, reduced the powers of the Minister of Finance in the supervision of the Central Bank.
“But, she can’t claim ignorance because she is the Finance Minister. The debt Management office (DMO) was under her. And there is no how the DMO will not alert the Minister that we are over borrowing or the threshold of out borrowing is 40 per cent. And today, we have reached a threshold whereby we are 42-43 per cent. And it is very scary. Therefore, she has some questions to answer”, the former governor said.
When asked if some Banks CEOs have questions to answer, Yuguda said, “Of course they have questions to answer too. The toxic assets in Nigeria at the region of N3 trillion to N4 trillion.
“Who created them? Are the Bank executives not walking the streets today with very flashy jets and so on and so forth when their balance sheets are rotten. When their balance sheets get rotten, they transfer the garbage to Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON). When they are broke, the Central Bank dish out tax payers money to them”, he queried.
Yuguda said, “If you look at our external debt and our external reserve, are almost running neck to neck. So, if the strength of your currency is derived from your reserve, that is why you are encouraged to export and reduce import.
“Your currency become stronger. So, our reserve base now is threatened. And of course, people are into panic buying of dollar because dollar has been seen as another gold, a store of value.
“So, all these laundered funds and stolen money that we see people stealing from our treasury, is laundered to dollar. So, there is a rush for people to buy dollar. We simply go by the elementary laws of demand and supply. When the demand is very high and the supply is not there, what should we expect?”, he stressed.
“It is an excess of N3 trillion to N4 trillion. And Nigerians are asking what is the source of the funding of the toxic asset? It’s from the tax payers money. It’s the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that buys off those bad loans from Banks. They give them liquid cash to continue their business. They off these things and give it to AMCON to sell. That is another scam.
“So, the rot is beyond imagination.
The President is somebody to sympathise with. Some of us that know the inside dealings in the system, we sympathise with Tinubu and pray for him 24 hours to succeed”, Yuguda said.
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