A group, under the aegis of Agbor Stakeholders Forum (ASF), has again accused the Federal Government of plotting to hunt down and destroy their son, Godwin Emefiele, by any means possible for his activities as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Emefiele, who is also a former Managing Director of Zenith Bank International, hails from Agbor, Delta State.
The group noted that they “consider the pursuit of Emefiele, a successful and thoroughbred banker, as a political vendetta and witch-hunt, calling on Tinubu to call off what they describe as “charade” and let the man be.
The group had earlier, in a statement last month, also appealed to Tinubu to free Emefiele, who had been in detention up to that point for close to six months without bail, even as they decried what they alleged was “victimisation of former CBN Governor over Buhari’s naira redesign policy.”
In a statement issued, yesterday, by Kanene Kachikwu on behalf of the group, ASF said it had been compelled to cry out again in view of “the relentless propaganda and media assault” unleashed on Emefiele by the Federal Government since he was granted bail a few weeks ago.
In a statement titled, ‘We Protest Operation Destroy Emefiele,’ Agbor stakeholders said: “We, his kinsfolks and stakeholders in his Agbor homestead have had cause to cry out last year after he was detained for over six months without bail, lamenting that though he was finally granted bail, we are moved to cry out once again in view of obvious attempts, in the last couple of weeks, to destroy Emefiele’s person and character in the media.
“We are worried that since the beginning of this administration, one man has been subjected to the investigation of the Department of State Service (DSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a Special Financial Investigator, Jim Obazee.”
ASF noted that although no charges against Emefiele have been able to stand in the face of the courts, he is still haunted and harassed by agents of the government for discharging his responsibilities creditably, carrying out legitimate orders of a sitting President as Governor of the CBN.
Insisting that the former CBN governor had been unjustifiably harassed, and his character impugned, ASF accused the Tinubu administration of an Emefiele paranoia, lamenting that the famous banker and administrator has been charged with over half a dozen offences all of which have failed in different courts.
