El-Rufai alleges Emefiele introduced naira redesign to help PDP win elections

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Friday alleged the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, came up with the naira redesign policy to help the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) win the country’s general elections.

The Supreme Court on Friday nullified the policy which has thrown the nation into economic chaos in the last few weeks.

The apex court described the policy as an affront to the 1999 Constitution and ordered that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes remain in circulation till December 31.

El-Rufai, who addressed journalists shortly after the ruling on Friday, insisted Emefiele deceived President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter.

The governor expressed the hope that hoped President Buhari would obey the court order.

He said: “Emefiele is the one that came up with this policy to help the PDP win the 2023 general elections and deceived the President into thinking that it is possible to withdraw N2trillion from circulation and reprint everything in three months. No country in world history has done it. He was appointed Central Bank Governor by the PDP originally. So, let’s not forget where he came from.

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“He deceived the President; he gave the President wrong information and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, unfortunately, we have to claim that, that one is from our party, supported this policy. And we know why. Go and look at the antecedents. These are people who want to run for president or governor in our party and didn’t make it. This is their revenge plan.

“Whether the Federal Government obeys the order or not is up to the Federal Government but I know President Muhammadu Buhari very well. He is a man that respects the law.

“Part of the reasons why I convinced my colleagues to go to the Supreme Court is that we are among the closest governors to the President and we wanted to show him if those closest to him disagree with him so publicly on a matter, then you need to reflect on it.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is a man that obeys the law. He may have been misguided by his advisers but now that the Supreme Court has spoken unequivocally, I am confident that all the orders have been complied with.”

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