AGAIN, EMEFIELE SHUNS REPS SUMMON OVER CASH WITHDRAWAL LIMITS

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has again failed to honour the summons by the House of Representatives to clarify issues on its recent policy on cash withdrawal limits.

Emefiele was billed to appear before the House on Tuesday following his failure to honour the earlier summons by the lawmakers.

You will recall that the House had earlier summoned Emefiele to appear last Thursday, December 15 to explain the latest policy of the apex bank which among others, restricted cash withdrawals from over-the-counter and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to N100, 000 and N500, 000 per week for individuals and corporate organizations, respectively.

However, Emefiele failed to appear before the lawmakers, saying he was away on an official assignment.

CBN’s Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Edward Adamu, in a communication to the House, told the lawmakers that Emefiele was part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s entourage to the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit and as such, could not honour the summon.

Following his absence, the lawmakers in their resolutions asked the CBN Governor to appear before the House on Tuesday, December 20.

But at the resumption of plenary on Tuesday, Emefiele, again, through a letter signed by Adamu, said he would not be able to appear before the lawmakers because he is not yet back in the country.

Speaker Femi Gbajamiamila, after reading the communication said the invitation should be rescheduled for this Thursday and wondered why the CBN governor is out of the country for over two weeks “at this critical time”.