Arewa assembly sacks speaker over attack on Buhari’s economic policies

The Arewa Youth Assembly has sacked its speaker, Mohammed Salihu Danlami, over attack on President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policies and smear campaign against the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

The Assembly, on Thursday, appointed Tahir Muhammad Azare to replace him.

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Danlami had, in a statement a few days ago, argued that the policies of the apex bank have plunged the country’s economy into comatose and the CBN governor seems to have exhausted all his ideas on economic stability.

The new speaker, while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, explained that Danlami, despite the resolution of the leadership of the Assembly not to use the platform for devious political plots, went ahead to use the name of the Assembly to threaten national security and the economy of the country.

“We have since reliably gathered that the smear campaign against Emefiele was being sponsored by some faceless prominent Nigerians who want to have their cronies in charge of the apex bank so that they can continue to loot the nation’s treasury unabated and to use funds from the bank to bankroll their vaulted political ambitions.

“As a responsible youth organisation, we find it ridiculous, shameful and embarrassing that Salihu Danlami can drag the good name of our Assembly into this mess,” Azare said.

He said the Assembly has written to the relevant security agencies to probe Danlami to unravel the extent of his nefarious activities against the country.

Meanwhile, a coalition of northern groups under the aegis of Northern Advocacy Groups, on Thursday, threw weight behind Emefiele, following calls for his resignation in some quarters.

The group stated this in a statement jointly signed by Alhaji Mohamed Bashir-Ali, Northern Professional Forum; Hajia Fatima Abubakar, Arewa Business Women League; Sadiq Ibrahim, Arewa Frontier; and Comrade Yusuf Yahaya, Arewa Patriotic and Anti-Corruption Network.

“We hereby state emphatically that any act designed to frustrate efforts of Mr Godwin Emefiele to restore the economy from its downward slope orchestrated by fall and unstable price of crude oil and the advent of COVID-19 pandemic will be opposed.

“We consider it wrong and unnecessary the call for the resignation of the CBN Governor over the unproven claim that the policies of the apex bank have leapt the county into poverty,” it added.