Naira swap: Buhari was wrongly advised – Keyamo

….says Emefiele deceived Nigerians on naira swap

Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, Festus Keyamo says President Muhammadu Buhari may have acted on “wrong advice” regarding his recent directive on the old naira notes.

Speaking on Friday in an interview on Channels Television, Keyamo said the president has “good intentions” with his recent directive amid the supreme court ruling.

On Thursday, Buhari said he has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the validity of old N200 notes till April 10.

The president also said all existing old N1,000 and N500 notes will be redeemable at the CBN and designated points for 60 days.

Prior to the president’s directive, the supreme court had declared the notes as legal tender pending the determination of the suit filed by some state governments.

Reacting to the development, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said he would have advised the president to comply fully with the ruling of the supreme court.

“The decision was not a cabinet’s decision. If it were a cabinet’s decision, I’m bound by the decision of the cabinet,” he said.

“My view is that the president acted honestly without the intentions to slight the supreme court.

“But he may have acted on wrong advice. I didn’t give that advice. It is not my responsibility. I don’t know who gave that advice.

“I think the president went with the best of intentions. My personal view — perhaps, he may have been misdirected along the line but he went with the best intentions.”

The minister of State for Labour and Employment said the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, deceived Nigerians with the implementation of the new naira design.

He said Emefiele told Nigerians that the CBN would be carrying out a currency swap but ended up confiscating people’s money.

“There was a grand deception. You said it was currency swap, what you are doing is currency confiscation, it’s not swap. Swap is that I bring N1,000, you give N1,000. I bring 5,000, you give me N5,000 of the new notes.

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“But you said all of us should deposit all our money. At that time we deposited all our money, the new notes were not available. I think that is where we also got it wrong as citizens. We should have insisted on the availability of the new notes before we deposited the old notes.

“What happens to financial freedom; you have confiscated my money, you have denied me the right over my money. That was the grand deception they sold to everybody.”