Anthony Iwuoma
The Federal Government has declared that the alleged treasonable statements of Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and a former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, would be investigated.
Speaking at the 67th session of the State House briefing in Abuja, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, disclosed that security agencies were doing the needful in assessing the utterances and to ascertain further actions, such as investigation, persecution and any other actions to be determined by the relevant agencies.
According to the Minister, the Naira redesign policy was geared towards helping to curb the role money plays during elections and, therefore, the need to ensure that “money is not allowed to play a prominent role in affecting the freedom of judgment of Nigerians” at the polls.
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“The policy associated with the Naira redesign has a lot of advantages, advantages associated with the fight against corruption in terms of bringing about the desired visibility and transparency, advantages associated with sustenance and allowing the freedom of judgment Nigerians to prevail freedom devoid of monetary inducement and intervention is equally part of it.
“This issue of treason is an issue of process, so you cannot rule out the possibility of an investigation, but the responsibility of investigation and doing the needful arriving from the weight and assessment of the implication of the statement and utterances is the responsibility of security agencies.
“I believe they are doing the needful in that respect to determine whether there is a need for further actions, actions associated with investigation, actions associated with persecution and what other measures need to be taken in case it is their conclusion, but there is need for actions to be taken in relating to the utterances made,” Malami said.
The two prominent leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor el-Rufai and Oshiomhole, have been very critical of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with regard to the Naira redesign policy.
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While Governor el-Rufai ordered his state to defy the Federal Government stance, insisting that all old notes of N200, N500, and N1,000 remained legal tenders in Kaduna State, Oshiomhole described the Naira redesign policy as ‘senseless’.
“For the avoidance of doubt, all the old and new notes shall remain in use as legal tender in Kaduna State until the Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise.
“I, therefore appeal to all residents of Kaduna State to continue to use the old and new notes side by side without any fear.
“The Kaduna State Government and its agencies shall seal any facility that refuses to accept the old notes as legal tender and prosecute the owners.
“If need be, we shall take further consequential actions according to the law” Governor el-Rufai had told Kaduna residents.
Oshiomhole, on his part, accused President Buhari of inflicting pains on the people and trying to spoil someone else’s election, wondering why the president did he did not redesign the naira during his own time.