BREAKING: Emefiele sent packing as Buhari allegedly sacks the CBN governor 48 hours after withdrawing eligibility suit

Emefiele allegedly sacked

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has reportedly been shown the way out of his prestigious office by President Muhammadu Buhari. This development was coming about 48 hours after withdrawing his suit seeking legal protection to contest in the 2023 presidential election.

Reports say that the nation’s number one banker, who had indeed, obtained protection last week from a Kwale, Delta State High Court, to contest the election without resigning from office, was notified of his sack in the early hours of Wednesday May 25.

Details of the development are still hazy, but if true, it may not be unconnected to the said ambition which many Nigerians, had attacked as injurious to his job, as a CBN governor, by law and convention is not supposed to get close to partisan politics.

The din over Emefiele’s alleged interest in the presidency, which had been a matter of speculation, manifested, after a group of people, who identified themselves as farmers and Fulani herdsmen purchased the N100m form of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for him.

Though he did not make an outright declaration, the drama around his interest progressed when he went to a Federal High Court in Abuja, with prayers through his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), seeking to prevent the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) from interfering with his job or seeking his resignation from office as a result of his interest.

However, after being denied by the Abuja court, which asked him to put the other parties on notice, he eventually succeeded at the court in Delta, where he hails, which eventually granted him his wish.

Between the back and forth, the CBN boss, had visited Buhari at the Presidential Villa a fortnight ago, where he told State House Correspondents that there would be news about him very soon, and was quoted as taunting those against his alleged moves, saying that they would die in pain.

But on Monday, news of his withdrawal of the suit he filed against INEC and the AGF, broke, indicating a change in plan, even though the exact reasons for the move, was not given.

Buhari, had at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), two weeks ago, ordered all his appointees with political interest to resign with a Monday, 16th deadline.

While some appointees like Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, among others, quickly beat a retreat and renounced their interest in the presidency, forfeiting their N100million forms in the process, others who resigned had since continued with their campaigns for the the APC presidential primaries scheduled for May 29 and 30.