Saraki Links Emefiele’s DSS Attack To Top Politicians, Urges Security Agencies Not To Be Used To Disrupt Elections

Several reactions have trailed the recent alleged witch hunt of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Naija News reports that the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, while adding his voice, has attributed the move to remove Emefiele to top politicians who want to disrupt the 2023 general election.

According to him, security agencies should be careful not to allow themselves to be used as pawn to disrupt the polls next.

Naija News reported on 19 December that an application to arrest and detain Emefiele by the DSS was stopped by a federal High court sitting in Abuja.

This platform gathered that Justice John Tsoho, the Chief Judge of the High Court, in declining the motion ex parte, filed by an applicant in the absence of the respondent, said the secret police did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims that Emefiele was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.

According to the sources, the judge said he should have been taken into confidence if there was any evidence to back the allegations.

“The honourable judge also wondered why the name of the respondent was given simply as ‘Godwin Emefiele’ without a material disclosure that he is the same person as the CBN governor, a high-ranking public official who occupies an extremely sensitive position,” the source told The Cable.

In his reaction to the incident, Saraki said in a statement on Wednesday that as a victim of a similar “politically-motivated accusation”, he noticed some clouds around the DSS court action.

The former Kwara State governor queried why the initiative was coming after the introduction of tough guidelines on the cashless regime and redesigned the naira and also barely two months before the general election.

Saraki described the DSS suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against Emefiele as frivolous and without concrete evidence.

He advanced that the case is being seen as part of “a grand plot by those who want to undermine and sabotage the coming general election because their calculation on vote buying, rigging, and excessive use of money is falling apart.”

He alleged that some elements attempted to use the National Assembly to tamper with the electoral process by frustrating the electronic transmission of results, the Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS), and the new guidelines on currency change and cash withdrawal.

Saraki, who is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) argued why the DSS did not tender concrete evidence before the court for a good decision to be taken on the said suspicion and speculations.

He submitted that the new CBN regulation on a cashless regime is sure to frustrate the partisan fraudsters, the mischievous politicians and unpatriotic elements.

The former senate leader observed that “As somebody who had been wrongly accused of involvement in the Offa robbery by political opportunists, I feel that a similar intrigue is being weaved by those who are bent on sabotaging the 2023 elections.

“My position is not to support Emefiele but to support democracy which is being targeted by the plotters.

“With all the due respect that I have for the DSS as a very professional security agency, I still found it very difficult to understand what led to the charges.”

He, therefore, urged security agencies to distance themselves “from the anarchists and anti-democratic elements masquerading as democrats or political players.”