Spokesperson for the Afenifere Renewal Group, Yinka Odumakin,
said on Tuesday that he did not consider the suspended Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, a hero.
Odumakin told journalists in Lagos that President Goodluck Jonathan was right in suspending Sanusi.
Sanusi
was suspended by Jonathan on February 20 for alleged financial
recklessness and misconduct but many had said the action was political
and meant to divert attention from Sanusi’s $20bn missing oil fund
expose.
Odumakin said that Sanusi could not be in office while under investigation for the allegations that were levelled against him.
He said,
“Given
the infractions that Mallam Sanusi was accused to have committed as CBN
governor, if they are true and given the explanation that the President
gave yesterday (Monday) that the CBN board is the body charged to
investigate these allegations, Sanusi cannot preside over his cause.
“So
it is right to ask him to step aside as in the suspension, not removed
until those charges are cleared. Like the President said, if he is found
not guilty, he will go back to his position.”
Odumakin
questioned the role the suspended CBN governor played during the subsidy
saga and wondered why Sanusi did not speak out concerning the missing
funds as early as 2011.
He noted that if Sanusi had not been
queried by the Federal Government, he would not have made public the
fact that monies were missing in the Federation Account.
“Sanusi
was given query in April 2013, Sanusi blew the whistle in September
2013. Which one comes first? Attack as the best form of defence is what
Sanusi is doing. So Sanusi is not my hero. Why did he not blow the
whistle earlier?” he asked.
He added, “Are you saying
there was no unremitted fund in 2011, in 2012? When they were going to
remove subsidy, they were all together with Minister of Finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala; and the rest of them. So if they had not given him query,
perhaps we will not hear anything.
“To now
come out to be saying it is now $40bn, it is now $10bn, $20bn; I see a
man that is just trying to hold on to any straw. So, he is not my hero
and I don’t want to see him as a hero.”
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