Alleged Non-Remittance Of Crude Oil Proceeds To Federation Account: Act ‘Presidentially’ By Suspending Sanusi Now – Ezeife Tells Jonathan

Third
Republic governor of Anambra state, Dr.
Chukwuemeka Ezeife yesterday called on
President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately
suspend the Governor of Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi over
the alleged false alarm he raised concerning the
non-remittance of $49.8 billion crude oil
proceeds by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, into the federation account.
The CBN
governor has since clarified that only about
$10.8 billion is yet to be accounted for; a figure
the government-run oil corporation insists is not
missing.
Ezeife made the call yesterday while speaking
to Saturday Vanguard in Abuja.
"I am surprised. I didn't know that the report of
the CBN indicating that a whopping sum of
$49.8 billion was missing from the federation
account was false. That gives the impression
that the CBN Governor is working against the
government he is serving. He tried to make
President Jonathan look bad in the eye of the
public. The money involved was so huge that to
lie about it is a serious affair", Ezeife said.
He continued: "Irrespective of who is involved or
my personal relationship with them, given the
present situation, the President should act
presidentially. There is no way the Governor of
CBN could be trading words with the
President. He should be suspended immediately
from office. If this had happened under former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, the CBN Governor
wouldn't have been allowed to enter his office
again after making a bold statement that the
President could not remove him from office.
"I read the second statement made by the CBN
about the alleged missing billions of dollars but
there was no mention of the fact that the
Governor's earlier claim was a mistake. The
statement simply mentioned the role of the
CBN. That kind of mistake is impossible. It was a
deliberate action to impugn the President and
his government. This is not a matter of being a
Christian, humble or simple; there are
presidential powers that must be respected", he
said.
The former governor noted that the incident
involving Jonathan and Sanusi created the
impression in the media that the president can
never bite even though he has teeth.
According to him, "Sometimes the President
needs to exercise his powers. This time
around, even though the President won't bite
anybody, he needs to show his teeth and
perhaps bite. Falsehood is not acceptable. The
present case won't affect the economy".
Ezeife added that "Even though Sanusi insisted
that $10 billion of the sum NNPC ought to have
paid into the federation account is still missing,
the difference between approximately $50
billion and $10 billion is like the difference
between night and day. My position is that his
later admission that it was a mistake and now
said it was only $10 billion is like the action of
a sinking man who is ready to hold on to any
straw to prevent him from going under"
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.