A cross-section of Nigerian youths, on Thursday asked Nigerians to disregard what they described as a “smear campaign” against the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
The youths under the aegis of Nigerian Ethnic Youth Leaders Council (NEYLC) alleged that a bad campaign is being championed by a human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, and his online platform, SaharaReporters.
They said the reported attack on Emefiele, had shown that those threatened by the calls on the CBN Governor to contest the 2023 presidential election will stop at nothing with their sponsored negative media reports targeted at him.
The NEYLC, which consists of Arewa Consultative Youth Movement (ACYM), Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Movement, Oduduwa Youths and Middle Belt Youths, made its position known in a statement signed by the Ohanaeze Secretary-General and head of coalition’s secretariat, Nwada Ike Chiamaka.
According to the groups, the report claiming that Emefiele had earmarked a huge sum of money for his presidential campaign was not only false but was also concocted and sponsored to portray Emefiele in bad light.
The statement read, “We have noticed the unfortunate pattern that the clamour for who becomes the next President of Nigeria will be is currently taking.
“With the increasing calls on Emefiele to join the race, some desperate politicians are already feeling the heat and have resorted to campaign of calumny and blackmail against the CBN Governor.
“We say with all boldness that there is no iota of truth in the fiction published by SaharaReporters which was dubiously tagged as exclusive.
“In urging Nigerians to disregard the report in its entirety, we also alert them to more of such reports that have already been prepared by their paymasters and have been scheduled to be released in batches just to pull down a man they are seeing as a threat to their ambition to rule Nigeria by all means in order to milk the nation dry and run it aground.”
