Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Monday, denied allegations that he had launched a fresh plot against the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, ahead of Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos.
A newspaper had earlier on Monday reported that CBN had mobilised N500 million windfall through its high-level agents in Lagos State for the purpose of Saturday’s elections in Lagos State.
The report alleged that the money was described as “Oga’s own contribution to the takeover-Lagos-from-Tinubu’s-influence,” now that he has become the president-elect and will be relocating to Abuja.
But the CBN, in a statement on Monday by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isa Abdulmumin, titled, “Re- Emefiele launches fresh plot against President-elect Tinubu,” the apex bank dismissed the allegation in the report that he made a certain amount of money available to the gubernatorial candidate of Labour Party in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
The CBN statement read, “The attention of the CBN has been drawn to a story published in The Nation newspaper of Monday, March 13, 2023 edition, alleging that the Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele has launched a “fresh plot against the President-elect.
“The aforementioned story went further to allege that the Governor has made a certain amount of money available to a political aspirant ahead of March 18, 2023 governorship poll.
“We wish to inform members of the public that this story is completely false and malicious as the Governor does not know and has never met or even spoken with Mr Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour either in person or through proxy.”
It described the report as fake, adding, “We wish to reiterate that the CBN Governor does not take part in Politics and therefore urge anyone with contrary information to prove the Governor wrong should provide such facts.
“As such the Governor and team at the CBN should be allowed to focus on their assigned job with a view to achieving statutory mandates of the Bank.”