Naira scarcity: House‘ll continue to monitor CBN–Gbajabiamila

House of Reps Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said the House would continue to monitor the CBN’s implementation policy closely after its meeting with CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele on the issue.

A statement by the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity quoted Gbajabiamila as saying this Sunday at a town hall meeting with some ethnic groups in Surulere, Lagos state.

Gbajabiamila said he was on the verge of signing an arrest warrant against Emefiele following his initial failure to appear before an ad hoc panel of the House.

He said: “The House of Representatives intervened on several occasions. We summoned the CBN governor the first time and again, but he refused to answer, because we had many hard questions for him.

“It was until I issued the threat of warrant of arrest before he came, and I would‘ve signed that warrant; it would’ve been the first time in the history of the National Assembly that a CBN governor would be arrested. I would’ve done it.

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“Many have argued on the independence of CBN, the autonomy of CBN. That does not make CBN above the law. The Constitution gives the House the power to issue an arrest warrant against anyone, we can summon anybody, and that was exactly what the House was going to do until the CBN governor came.

“So, we are watching, and we are monitoring very closely. If need be, we will reconvene the House, even though we’ve all been away for our elections. I will call the House back, if need be.”

“On the currency swap, let me explain something to you. We are all very intelligent people. Many are suffering, we have paid your salary, and you cannot withdraw it; people cannot eat, what kind of thing is that?

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“But I have news for you. There’s one man who is running for president of this country, and that man has courage and audacity. This man came out boldly and identified the problem, that the fifth columnists, in cooperation with the PDP are the ones trying to sabotage this election.

“Many have said he’s talking about Buhari, but he told them ‘no, I’m not talking about Buhari; I’m talking about fifth columnists.’ If you don’t know the meaning of fifth columnists, go and check your dictionary. Fifth columnists infiltrate people, they even infiltrate families, otherwise how do you explain this type of policy?

“The president, being the compassionate person that he is, has asked for a few more days to look at everything that is going on and see if anything could change. We pray that things will change. If nothing changes, we will intervene again, but be sure of one thing: that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu stands with you and stands with Nigerians in their suffering.