Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila has threatened to invoke the provisions of section 89(D) of the 1999 Constitution as amended to compel the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele to appear before the House.
Section 89 gives the parliament power to issue a warrant of arrest on anybody who refuses to honor an invitation from them.
The House at plenary on Tuesday set up an ad-hoc committee to interface with the CBN and Managing Directors of Banks on the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes and cashless policy while asking the apex bank to extend the deadline for deposit of the old notes by six months.
Neither the Governor of the CBN nor his representative honored the House invitation for a meeting by 3.00 pm on Wednesday, prompting another invite for Thursday.
A letter read on the floor of the House on Thursday by the Speaker and signed by CBN’s Deputy Governor, Corporate Services said Emefiele will not honor the invitation because he was part of President Buhari’s delegation to Dakar, Senegal.
Reacting to the letter from the apex bank, Gbajabiamila said though the CBN Governor was a personal friend, he and other members of the House have a constitutional duty to perform.
He said the refusal of the CBN Governor to honor the invitation or send a representative to the House was not acceptable, adding the bank must attend the meeting summoned by the House before the close of business on Thursday.
He said if the bank fails to honor the invitation of the House to discuss a policy, which has caused serious hardship to Nigerians, he will be forced to invoke the provisions of the constitution to issue a warrant of arrest asking the Inspector General of Police to compel the CBN Governor to honor the House invitation.
