Naira Redesign: CBN Collected N3.2Trn, Printed Only N402Bn – Femi Falana

Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gathered almost 3.2 trillion Naira but had only produced 402 billion Naira when it tried to replace the old N200, N500, and N100 notes with new ones.

Speaking on Monday’s episode of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Falana criticised former central bank governor Godwin Emefiele for the currency redesign earlier in the year that caused a shortage of the naira currency at the time.

Falana claimed that in response to these upsetting events that followed the naira redesign strategy, he sought legal action by invoking the Freedom of Information Act and asking the Central Bank to reveal the precise amount of money that had been created.

“To find out how much was printed, I had to write to the central bank under the Freedom of Information Act.

“To my utter dismay, the bank only printed 402 billion naira despite receiving about 3.2 trillion from customers and others,” he claimed.

The human rights attorney underlined the importance of using the law to fight corruption and acquire crucial data to safeguard the interests of the populace.

“We must exploit the law and employ the law to combat corruption and gather data to protect our people,” he stated.

Speaking on the programme, Falana asserted that it goes against the federal character principle for the chairs of Nigeria’s two federal anti-corruption agencies, the Independent Corrupt Practises and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to be from the same geopolitical region.

The senior attorney stated that since the EFCC chairman is from the northern region, the ICPC chairman should come from the southern zone.

“The heads of the EFCC and the ICPC cannot come from the same zone,” he remarked.