- “Rivers State government will join the three northern states in the suit that is already challenging what the CBN is doing”.
Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike has distanced his state’s chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over their support for the currency redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
PDP and Atiku had despite the hardship inflicted on Nigerians by scarcity of the new naira notes, encouraged the CBN not to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of old notes from circulation.
However, speaking after the Supreme Court judgment which halted the CBN from withdrawing the use of the old naira notes of N200, N500 and N1000 on February 10 as scheduled by the apex bank, Wike said though he is a member of PDP, he did not share the opinion of the party and Atiku on the issue.
The Governor said the PDP in Rivers State is not part of the party’s group agitating for compliance to the February 10 deadline.
“And I want to say, we are not part of that PDP group who are supporting this kind of action. We, PDP in Rivers State, we will not support this kind of action.”
Rather, the Governor commended the Supreme Court for saving Nigeria’s democracy by halting the withdrawal of the new naira notes.
Wike said the intervention of the Supreme Court was timely because there are some elements who have been working to derail the ongoing democratic process with the anxiety and hardship inflicted on the people by the naira swap policy.
Wike spoke at the County State School, Emilaghan in Central Abua, venue of Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign flag-off rally in Abua/Odua Local Government Area on Wednesday.
“I want to, on behalf of the Rivers State Government, commend the Nigerian Supreme Court for what they have done today [Wednesday] to save the masses of this country and to save democracy.
“Today, the Supreme Court has stopped the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from embarking on stopping the old Nigerian Naira notes from circulating.”
Wike also said the Rivers State government will join the three northern states in the suit that is already challenging what the CBN is doing.
“And let me commend my brother states like Kogi state, like Kaduna, like Zamfara state who took it upon themselves to go and challenge the federal government at the Supreme Court.
“I also want to say that the Rivers State Government will join them in that suit to challenge what the CBN is doing. We will not support anything that will go against the masses, anything that makes the masses to suffer”, the governor stated.
Governor Wike also reiterated that the survival of the country’s democracy rests, to a large extent on critical agencies of government that expected to live up to their statutory obligations.
“I have said before, this democracy can only survive with the support of INEC, with the support of security agencies and with the support of the judiciary. With what happened today, the Supreme Court has shown that the hope of the common man lies on the judiciary.”