New naira: APC govs might seek out-of-court settlement – Atiku loyalist
A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Timi Frank, has accused the aggrieved APC governors of making frantic efforts to cajole the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), into reconsidering his stance on the old N500 and N1,000 notes before they can agree to settle the case out of court.
Frank, a loyalist of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, alleged that the pressure to settle the cases over naira redesign policy out of the Supreme Court was so intense that he feared the president and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, could cave in.
He made the claim in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday.
His concern is coming in the wake of Sunday crucial meeting between the National Chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Adamu and governors at the secretariat in Abuja.
The meeting, which started at about 2.37 pm, had 12 governors and two deputies in attendance.
The party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, later joined the meeting around 4.45pm.
At the end of proceedings, the ruling party and the Progressive Governors Forum called on the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to respect the verdict of the Supreme Court on the naira redesign policy.
Similarly, on Monday, Adamu had another closed-door meeting with Malami and the three aggrieved governors who sued the FG seeking a restraining order to stop the full implementation of the naira redesign policy of the CBN.
The governors were Nasir El Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara).
Although the meeting started at about 1.35 pm and took a little over an hour, none of the participants agreed to speak to the press.
The movements within the national headquarters of the party in the last three days have seemingly giving rise to talks of a possible out-of-court settlement.
Reacting to the development, Frank claimed that he received intelligence that the AGF was weighing the request of the APC to settle the case out of court before Saturday poll.
While urging Buhari to be mindful of his promise to bequeath free, fair and credible elections to Nigerians as his parting legacy, the politician further urged Malami to stand by the people by not succumbing to the overwhelming pressure of the governors.
He said, “Buhari must keep to his words by not bowing to the unholy pressure of the APC’s governors to settle out of court and to have N1,000 and N500 notes reintroduced.
“APC governors don’t have the interest of Nigerians at heart. We have seen how they have serially blackmailed the president to do their bidding in recent past.
“Now they are trying to blackmail the AGF to withdraw his suit challenging their own case for an out-of-court settlement during the sitting of the apex court on Wednesday.”
“Nigerians should know that we have only three days to go. Let us bear the pains for the next three days. Otherwise, the elections would be compromised through massive vote-buying by the APC and its governors and the present order of cluelessness and hardship would continue.”
Reacting to the probability of an out-of-court settlement, the Chief Spokesman for the APC presidential campaign council, Festus Keyamo, said nothing was impossible in law.
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed,” he told our reporter.
