N50b new notes smuggled out of CBN by Dino Melaye, others?

By KEMI KASUMU

If the N50 billion smuggled by Dino Melaye and co are of any substance connected with truth, it means that the cause of the sabotage, rather than being with the Deposit Money Banks alone, is more “unacceptably” supervised right under the watch of the CBN governor, Emefiele, himself, one of our respondents said.

Amidst hardship caused Nigerians by what our investigations showed to be artificial scarcity of new naira notes and dysfunctional bank mobile network systems in the country, former Kogi West Senator, Mr. Dino Melaye, was Friday reported to have, along with some other persons, smuggled N50 billion worth of the notes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This was coming on a day Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, revealed that the purpose for the new naira notes redesign has been defeated because bulk of the new notes is already in the hands of politicians, the targets he said had now already had their way.

El-Rufai said he gathered that the CBN printed or released N300 billion of the new notes into circulation but that out of it, only one person, a governor, collected N500 million at a go.

Abuja Network News, which reported the latest exclusive, credited its source to an anonymous whistle blower in the CBN.

The source, according to the online newspaper, disclosed how Dino Melaye and some heavyweight stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) allegedly smuggled a whooping N50 billion out of the apex bank using special utility vehicles to ferry the cash to an undisclosed location in Abuja under the cover of the night.

The whistleblower, according to the report, said the exercise was conducted over a period of three days under strict instructions and surveillance by a popular director in the bank who is known to be sympathetic to the opposition, under a ruling administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Also saying mechanism has been put in place for onward distribution of the funds to some key Northern states as mobilisation fees popularly called mobulus in the PDP jargon, the whistle blower was angry that Dino removed him from the exercise after helping to perfect the deal both on paperwork and in the loading of the cash.

The vehicles used to transport the said funds belongs to Delta, Adamawa and one other state governments and carries the seal of the state governors and security details.

The DEFENDER’s effort to get Senator Dino Melaye for his own side of the allegation to be captured was unsuccessful as at the time of filing this report as his was was “currently switched off” while text sent to his same cell phone was yet to be replied to.

In the meantime, many Nigerians have wondered how Godwin Emefiele allegedly claimed to have spent N3 trillion to print new naira notes, only for same notes to be scarce when the majority of the masses of the people desperately needed same to feed and take cater for themselves.

That was also as one recalled that media report had earlier on Friday revealed how some opposition stakeholders shared N150,000 new Naira notes each to over 50 ward executive members and a select group of their stakeholders in Kabusa ward of Abuja Municipal Area Council of the FCT.

What The DEFENDER could not trace in its fact-checks on Saturday was whether N150,000 to each ward executives was from the Dino Melaye and co’s N50 billion.

The source, however, reported confirmed in the affirmative, according to Abuja Network News.

President Muhammadu Buhari, at a meeting withe Progressive Governors on Friday, had for the same reason of artificial scarcity lamented the insincerity of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in disbursing the newly redesigned notes, which led to the hardship the people faced and had paralysed economic activities across the country.

The president promised Nigerians asking them to give him seven days to crackdown on saboteurs and corrupt elements in the banking system disrupting the speedy implementation of the apparently commendable new money policy.

If the N50 billion smuggled by Dino Melaye and co are of any substance connected with truth, it means that the cause of the sabotage, rather than being with the Deposit Money Banks alone, is more “unacceptably” supervised right under the watch of the CBN governor, Emefiele, himself, our respondents said.