The Coalition of Northern Groups has tasked security agencies, as well as anti-graft agents, to go after “destabilising forces” against the handover of government on May 29.
The group, in a statement signed on Thursday by the group’s spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, said security agents must ensure that the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, and other key office holders, do not “sneak out” before the handover of government on May 29.
Expressing concern over reported plans to scuttle the scheduled handover events, the group said the nation’s apex security agencies, such as the Directorate of State Services, the military and the Nigeria Police Force had shown no “visible proactive measures.”
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The group said it observed growing allegations of a planned study leave by Emefiele, and plans by other key office holders to leave the country “obviously in a bid to cover up their serial misconduct in office and to avoid being called to account.”
The group requested that key officeholders in the Buhari government clear themselves of all pending corruption and other allegations against them and demanded the cancellation of any study leave granted to the CBN governor in the interest of accountability.
The statement read in part, “The Coalition of Northern Groups is, as usual, worried by the growing uncertainties created by certain destabilising forces in the country surrounding the May 2029 transition to a new administration elected through the democratic poll processes of February 2023.
“CNG is also worried about reports that some top officials of the outgoing administration are planning to leave the country ahead of the handover, obviously in a bid to cover up their serial misconduct in office and to avoid being called to account.
“We demand that security agencies in the country including all the anti-graft agencies work in synergy and ensure that all critical office holders in the outgoing administration such as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, do not sneak out of the country before May 29. We insist that the CBN governor must be made to give an account of his tenure to the incoming administration.”
The CNG also urged the DSS to take urgent and proactive measures to checkmate, trace and expose the extent of plans to disrupt the handover process, and arrest and prosecute not only perpetrators of the plot but its sponsors.
(Punch)
