Prosecute CBN Gov Over Lack Of Audited Account – Hon Ihuoma

BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon Ngozika Ihuoma, has called for the sack and prosecution of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for refusal and or inability to produce the audited account of the apex bank to the National Assembly in the last three years as required by law.
He specifically said that President Muhammadu Buhari owes the nation the urgent need to not only sack Emefiele but should as a matter of necessity hand him over for investigation and prosecution.
Ihuoma, told journalists in Abuja at the weekend, that the CBN in 2015 allegedly spent N1.062 trillion revenue above the N482.167 billion proposed income for the year and therefore stressed that by the development, the apex bank overshot its spending in the 2014 appropriation by over 50% during the 2015 budget performance and 2016 budget defence of budgetary allocation to CBN.
He also accused the CBN of having imbibed the habit of spending more than its budgetary proposal thus developed a culture of spending everything it earns.
He further said; “The bank should have remitted N400 billion operating surplus to government’s treasury. There is an astronomical increase in staff cost from N158.134 billion in 2015 to N408.808 billion as proposed in 2016 budget.
Ihuoma, who is the Executive Secretary of Legislative Watch, queried why the CBN’s spending of N780 million on the dealing room, N226 million for recruitment, N1.5 billion on research, N75.980 billion loss incurred from SWAP, N.8 billion on data collection and about N1 billion on Entrepreneurial Development Centre.
He therefore demanded for CBN financial statement, nominal roll, details of foreign and domestic investments, among other contentious issues in order to address some of the contending issues on the operations and core mandate of the bank.
Ihuoma also said; On 11th July 2016, we had dragged the CBN to the ICPC for investigation over leakages from the Federation Account. As we speak the outcome of that investigation is still being awaited.
“These monumental and serial breaches are simply not acceptable. Imagine the ICPC had documented allegations of leakages in the illegal FAAC meeting monthly running into billions, we captured everything and submitted to them and as I speak to you, nothing has been done to stop the nefarious activities.”