CBN, GOVERNOR
The Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Olayemi Cardoso has been summoned by the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, to appear before it on Tuesday.
The CBN governor was summoned following an application by Alex Izinyon (SAN) , Counsel to the Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, to explain the Apex bank’s role in the November 11, 2023 election in Kogi State.
The Counsel to the Kogi State Governor, Izinyon ( SAN) moved the application following the refusal of the CBN governor or any officer at the Bank to honour the Subpoena issued by the Tribunal on April 18.
The CBN management in a letter to the tribunal, said they would not be available until Friday, April 26 pursuant to their application for subpoena.
He added that while Gov.Ododo had intended to call his witnesses within five days, the Subpoena should be addressed before the Governor proceeds.
The Counsel to the Kogi State Governor, Alex Izinyon( SAN) who said he had expected an officer from the Legal Department of the CBN to be at the Tribunal on Monday, described the letter written to the tribunal by the Apex Bank as” an act of Contempt”
He said subpoena, by nature, is in the name of the President and Commander- in- Chief of Armed Forces.
” If by tomorrow, we call our last witnesses and they( CBN officers) are not here, are urge my Lord to look at our application in the Interest of Justice” he said.
Counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) Aliyu Sarki (SAN), All Progressives Congress lawyer, D.C. Demingwe( SAN) and the Counsel for the Petitioners, Pius Akubo ( SAN) seconded Izinyon’s application.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Adi Birkin- Kudu held that the Subpoena was to the CBN to the CBN governor and Director of Corporate Service of the Banks.
According to him, it is a command in the name of the President,. Commander in- Chief of the Armed Forces of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The judge held that the act of writing to the tribunal by the Apex Bank that its officers” will be available on April 26 is Contemptuous and Condemnable”
The panel then adjourned the matter till April 23 for the continuation of the second respondent’s defence and for the CBN to show cause
