President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has suspended Mr Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with immediate effect according to a statement which was released on Friday by Willie Bassey, Director of Information at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The statement further said, “This is sequel to the ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.
“Mr. Emefiele has been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, who will act as the Central Bank Governor pending the conclusion of the investigation and the reforms”.
This is coming months after the CBN’s heavily-criticized Naira redesign policy which was implemented by the administration of Former President Muhammadu Buhari stating it introduced the newly designed Naira notes to help tackle insecurity, vote buying, amongst other issues.
The then-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu asked the CBN to allow both the old and new Naira notes to co-exist due to the hardship the Naira redesign policy brought on the populace.
In a related development, due to reports circulating on social media, the Department of State Services (DSS) has denied the arrest of the suspended CBN governor in a post from their official Twitter handle on Saturday which read: “Currently, Emefiele is not with the DSS.”
