The Joint Front of Civil Society Organisations of Nigeria has described the support of the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for the naira redesign policy as “suspicious.”
In a statement signed by its National President, Mr Barnabas Yock, on Thursday, JFCSON questioned the rationale for the open support for the unpopular policy by elements of the PDP, including Atiku, amid opposition from some governors, who had filed a suit against the Federal Government over the scarcity of the naira.
Yock also alleged that governors in the PDP were planning to use the resulting crisis in various parts of the country to stop the conduct of the February 25 elections, while also alleging a collusion between the party heads and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
“We find it quite suspicious that at a time when even governors of states controlled by the All-Progressives Congress are joining the public outcry against the pains and confusion caused by the CBN’s cashless policy, PDP, supposedly the main opposition party, is totally and openly in support of the policy.
“We recall that the PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar was the first to declare support for the policy and other PDP big names including state governors have now joined him. The PDP support for the anti-people policy that is wreaking families and communities across the country and potentially leading to greater unrest was busted with the application by the Governors of Bayelsa and Edo, all PDP states, to be joined as defendants against the suit filed by mainly APC governors, challenging it at the Supreme Court.
“It becomes even more suspicious that most of the PDP governments that are backing the policy are currently battling the consequences of the anger caused by the same policy. It, therefore, appears that the PDP is in some way connected to the alleged sinister device to use the already escalating cash crisis to create an environment that would hinder the conduct of elections in the country.
“It is becoming clearer that CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele who is a product of the PDP inherited by the current APC government is in a grand plot with his colleagues in the PDP and some privileged forces in the administration to scuttle the elections and smooth handover for their personal dubious interests,” the statement read.
They called on Nigerians to be vigilant of happenings in the country and use their voter cards to call those seeking offices to account.
“While we restate our commitment to challenge, resist and reject any such move under whatever pretext, we alert the nation and the global community as to where blame would ultimately lie in the event of a rapture in the system.
“Finally, we call on voters to be vigilant as to the way the country is headed and use their permanent voter cards to account for all elements of treachery seeking elections to whatever office,” it added.
