For allegedly failing to appear before the House of Representatives, the Speaker, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila has threatened to invoke the relevant sections of the Constitution to compel the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele to appear before it on the new naira notes and cashless policy.
He threatened to invoke the provisions of Section 89(d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to summon Emefiele.
Section 89 empowers the lawmakers to issue a warrant of arrest on anybody who refuses to honour their invitations.
Persecondnews recalls that the House at plenary on Tuesday set up an ad-hoc committee to interface with the CBN and Managing Directors of Banks on the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes and cashless policy.
It also asked the apex bank to extend the deadline for deposit of the old notes by six months.
The CBN Governor or his representative failed to honour the invitation for a meeting by 3.00 pm on Wednesday which prompted another invitation for Thursday.
A letter read on the floor of the House on Thursday by the Speaker and signed by CBN’s Deputy Governor, Corporate Services said Emefiele will not honour the invitation because he was part of President Buhari’s delegation to Dakar, Senegal.
But Gbajabiamila said though the CBN Governor is a “personal friend”, he insisted that the House had a constitutional oversight function to perform.
He threatened that if the apex bank boss fails to honour the invitation of the House to discuss the policy a warrant of arrest will be issued, asking the Inspector General of Police to compel the CBN Governor to honour the House invitation.
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