The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has asked the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, to arrest and prosecute the suspended Chief of Staff, CoS, to Abia State Governor, Anthony Agbazurere, for abusing the Naira.
HURIWA was reacting to a trending viral video in which Agbazurere was sighted while spraying Naira notes on Anambra State-based cleric, Chukwuemeka Ohanamere, also known as Odumeje, at Government House, Umuahia.
In a statement issued on Monday, December 7, 2020, by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group said: “ Emefiele’s failure to prosecute public officers who break the law prohibiting the spraying of the national currency has made Nigeria appear like a banana republic where the rich are greater than the law.
He said besides the CBN and the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, should order Agbazuere’s arrest and prosecution.
Onwubiko argued that Agbazuere exhibited conduct unbecoming of the law and ethics of holding a high publicly funded office in Nigeria as a country governed by law.
HURIWA condemned lack of interest on the part of the CBN governor, who it said, had consistently looked away while viral videos of some Nigerians breaking the law against the spraying of the Naira and other currencies circulate.
It added that Emefiele was only interested in being deployed by President Muhammadu Buhari to chase suspected sponsors of the recent #EndSARS protests, whose bank accounts were frozen, but had failed to prosecute perpetrators of unlawful and willful abuse of the Naira.
“We hereby call on the IGP to salvage the nation’s waning image and to tell the world that Nigeria is not a banana republic where some persons are above the law just as he is charged to arrest Odumeje and Agbazuere and prosecute them for abusing the Naira.
“The reported suspension of Agbazuere is only a political statement. The law is clear that the Nigeria Police should prosecute offenders of the law and as such the IGP should act decisively and professionally,” HURIWA added.
The group also recalled that the CBN had cautioned that abusing and spraying Naira notes may get people jail term, adding that the apex bank had started clamping down on abuse of Naira notes nationwide, as disclosed by director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor on June 15, 2019, at a one-day interactive session in Owerri, Imo State.
Source: The Guardian
