CBN’s Emefiele Addresses N500m Support For Labour Party Against Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has denied plotting against President-elect, Bola Tinubu.

Reports had circulated earlier on Monday, alleging that the central bank head is working with an unnamed retired general, who is described as a billionaire.

Emefiele is reportedly working with the yet-to-be-identified retired general to ensure the All Progressive Congress (APC) loses Lagos, a state that Tinubu once led as governor and allegedly chose the governors after his tenure.

The reports alleged that Emefiele and the retired general are working with Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos state.

Both Emefiele and the retired general are reportedly funding Rhodes-Vivor’s political ambition to aid his victory against the incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has the backing of Tinubu. 

The Nation said sources revealed the Labour Party in Lagos has received N500 million in new bank notes last night from Emefiele to support their campaign ahead of the 18 March governorship election within the state. 

The N500 million was attributed to Emefiele’s contribution to the campaign to end Tinubu’s influence in Lagos, which is Nigeria’s largest state economy. 

Recall that the Labour Party had defeated APC in Lagos during the Presidential election, as Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, polled 582,454 votes, while Tinubu pulled 577,606 votes for the APC. 

This has led to an intense campaign by Labour Party and the All Progressives Congress, as this is the first time since 1999 that Tinubu and the APC or any of its legacy parties (AD and ACN) would lose Lagos State in national and sub-national elections.

Addressing the report on Monday through CBN’s acting director of corporate communications, Isa Abdulmumin, Emefiele said he has never met or even spoken with Rhodes Vivour. 

“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a story alleging that the Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele has launched a ‘fresh plot against President-elect’. The aforementioned story went further to allege that the Governor has made a certain amount of money available to a political aspirant ahead of March 18, 2023, gubernatorial poll,” Abdulmumin said. 

“We wish to inform members of the public that this story is completely false and malicious as the Governor does not know and has never met or even spoken with Mr Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour either in person or through proxy. 

“We wish to reiterate that the CBN Governor does not take part in Politics and therefore urge anyone with contrary information to prove the Governor wrong should provide such facts.  

“As such the Governor and team at the CBN should be allowed to focus on their assigned job with a view to achieving statutory mandates of the Bank.”