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Group seeks trial of Emefiele, Malami over dead victims of naira swap crisis - THE GUARDIAN
By Sarah Adebowale
A civil society group, Congress for Rights Of Yoruba Nationalities (CROYN), has called for the prosecution of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the death of 14 innocent Nigerians during the unrest that trailed the sudden implementation of the controversial naira re-design and swap policy of the Federal Government.
The group in a statement signed by its National President, Abiodun Fanoro and General Secretary, Tunde Aiyenumelo, also called for the immediate sack of the two officials, adding that refusal by President Muhammadu Buhari to sack them after denying knowledge of their despicable roles in the exercise was either an attestation to his insensitivity to the plight of the victims or a concealed collaboration.
The group, therefore, appealed to the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Human Rights Writer’s Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and other leading civil society organisation to spearhead the trial of the duo and others that may have hands in the exercise, as a measure to ensure justice for both the dead and injured victims of the “Presidency-engineered unrest because the victims were legitimate bank-depositors operating legally under relevant financial Acts and the Constitution.”
The group, which commended civil society outfits, especially the Coalition of Northern Groups for keeping the naira crisis in the front burner, said, “it would be a great disservice to the memory of the dead, which would continue to haunt and hurt the aspiration and development of this country if as a state we fail to do justice to dead victims of injustice.”
The group also stressed that victims of the naira tragedy deserve much more national and international attention as done to #EndSARS’ victims.
CROYN also called on the National Human Rights Commission to set up a national Panel of Inquiry on the unrest, with a view to ascertaining how many people were actually killed and wounded, suspected law officers involved in the dastardly act, payment of compensation to the victims, including families of the dead and a follow up trial of suspected killers.
It lambasted members and leadership of the National Assembly who it accused of abandoning Nigerians to their fate while President Buhari, Emefiele and Malami were snuffing lives out of them through the naira policy and also refused to rescue the Supreme Court when the Presidency was treating it with disdain and ignominy after its various rulings on the currency re-design.
It described as “inhuman, insensitive and unremorseful the unapologetic disposition of Buhari and Emefiele to persisting suffering by Nigerians even weeks after the Supreme Court had put the exercise on hold”, which it said was being surreptitiously and cleverly undermined by Emefiele who was insincere in complying with the order of the apex court while Nigerians and their businesses were dropping dead everyday.
