Human rights lawyers and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have alleged that the Department of State Service (DSS) is plotting to frame the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on terrorism sponsorship against Nigeria.
To get Emefiele arrested, the group under the auspices of Coalition of National Interest Defenders alleged, the DSS has secretly instituted an action against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Describing the alleged action of the DSS as a strange development in the history of the country, the group demanded immediate sack of the Director General of the DSS, Yusuf Bichi, to prevent him from setting the country ablaze.
Addressing a joint press conference, yesterday, in Abuja, Convener of the Coalition, Tochukwu Ohazuruike, said the security agency filed a motion in court accusing the CBN governor of terrorism financing and others it described as economic crimes of national security dimension.
When contacted by The Guardian, DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, did not comment on the matter.
The group further accused the state service of not informing President Muhammadu Buhari of the investigative report, which showed them that Emefiele was a terrorist. It faulted the agency for allowing Emefiele to travel out of the country with the President and having unrestricted access to the President.
Challenging the veracity of the claims of the DSS, the coalition said if truly the DG of DSS believed his claims, he would not have allowed Emefiele anywhere near the President.
He added that allowing the CBN governor travel with the President showed that the DG did not believe Emefiele was a security threat, which meant that the claims of the DSS in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022 between the service and Emefiele was to forcefully and wrongfully remove him as CBN governor.
He said: “Sometime within the first week of this month, we intercepted credible intelligence about a plot at certain high places in government to stop Emefiele, by all means, and his policy to redesign the naira with its January 31, 2023 deadline and to stop the cash withdrawal limit policy of the bank.”
“The plotters admitted that their major challenge was that the President had fully approved the policies but agreed that the approval would not deter them. They also agreed that they would not be able to get the President to effect Section 11 (2)(f) of the Central Bank (Establishment) Act.
“They had earlier tried to undermine the President by attempting to amend the CBN Act and the Currency Decimal Act overnight in the House of Representatives, but failed.
While we monitored, they began to recruit people to join in their plot.”
The groups, therefore, called on Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation to set the process in motion to immediately suspend, arrest, investigate and prosecute the DSS DG.
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