Withdrawal limits: Emefiele punishing politicians, says Fintiri

Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State has accused Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor of targeting the political class with the cash withdrawal limit policy.

The planned policy of the CBN to limit daily cash withdrawal for individuals to N20,000 daily and N100,000 and N500,000 per week for individuals and corporate bodies respectively, has continue to generate reactions.

Weighing in at a campaign outing in Kala’a, Hong Local Government Area of the state on Friday, the governor said it was evident that the policy by Emefiele was targeted at the political class.

Fintiri said having lost out in his bid to join the political class, Emefiele chose to hunt politicians.

A group had purchased the All Progressives Congress (APC) N100 million for the CBN governor, but he later distanced himself from the race.

Speaking at the campaign outing, Fintiri said, “What is breeding poverty? Economic policies. Look at the one that is about to be implemented by the Central Bank which would further throw the country into poverty. Nobody is saying the economy shouldn’t be cashless. Take time and do it systematically. We shouldn’t do it as if some people wanted to be politicians and they were denied the opportunity, then they use their office to punish the politicians.

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“If we are talking about governors diverting funds, we expect the government to correct the anomaly by sponsoring amendment to the Nigerian constitution to separate the office of the accountant general of the federation from the accountant general of the federal government so that funds belonging to local government and the state would not also be converted by the federal government, because what the governors are being accused of, the Federal Government can equally be accused of doing same ten times over.”

This is coming a day after Fintiri said the Federal Government is the worst culprit in the illegal deductions of monies belonging to local governments and states.

He was reacting to comments by President Muhammadu Buhari that governors thwart development in the country by tinkering with local government allocations.

The Buhari-led administration also blamed the high poverty rate in the country on state governors, alleging that the failure of the state governments to contribute their quota of development responsibilities is the reason poverty level has increased.