From Paul Osuyi, Asaba

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of fighting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the retention of the old naira notes for the purpose of buying votes in the forthcoming elections.

This is as it disowned Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike  on his intention to join the three APC governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states in a suit challenging the CBN on the phasing out of the old currency notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations with today as deadline.

The PDP said Wike, who is leader of the aggrieved G-5 governors, was on his own in the plot to join the suit as the leadership of the party has not authorized any of its members to challenge the CBN currency policy.

Presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu on Wednesday had lauded the Supreme Court ruling which temporary barred the CBN and Federal Government from sticking to the February 10 deadline for the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes to cease to be legal tenders in the country.  

Tinubu said the governors that instated the case  had saved the country from needless political and economic crises which had clearly become the unintended consequences of the monetary policy of the apex bank.

However, spokesman of the PDP presidential campaign council, Charles Aniagwu, at a press conference in Asaba, yesterday, described the suit by the three governors as anti-people.

The Commissioner for Information in Delta State, alleged that the objective of the suit by the APC governors was to protect the humongous money in old notes which they had stashed away for the purpose of vote buying during the general elections. 

He said the PDP was not depending on money to win the election, and urged the CBN to make the new notes accessible to Nigerians to carry out their legitimate transactions.

“They have stashed away quantities of the old naira notes, that is why you find that three governors of the same political party that initiated the policy are the ones that decided to go to the Supreme Court with a view to short circuit the progress being made.  They are shouting CBN, but you wonder why they did not join the CBN or the banks in the suit because they know that if they do that, they cannot run to the Supreme Court. 

They went ahead to activate the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court with respect to the case between the Federal Government and the states. They went back to court, they did not sue the elements, they did not sue the CBN, they did not sure Emefiele. That tells you that APC is not only confused but that they know that they have lost this election,” he said.

Aniagwu said any PDP governor who supported the suit against the CBN did not enjoy the backing of the party. He said the PDP  remains a united party without faction.

“So anybody who goes on air and ask that they should join him in an ill-fated suit, you know that they are co-travellers,” he said.

Aniagwu said PDP is solidly behind the CBN’s plan to phase out the old notes, even as he said the PDP was in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to give Nigerians a free, fair and credible election.

“All this one that they (APC) are fighting Buhari it is because the man is not flowing with them along the line they are going, they want to intimidate him everyday and see how he can support them and abandon the desire to give us a free, fair and credible elections. And that is all we want Buhari to do for Nigerians; to allow free, fair and credible elections in order to leave behind a legacy for himself and remarkable foot print in the sands of time. 

“But APC does not want him to do that. It is paining them that Buhari wants to leave behind a free, fair and credible election. And we in the PDP support the president in his desire to have credible election for Nigerians. 

We support him in the desire to deal with those who have taken our money in order to spend it illicitly. We urge the CBN to make sure that the banks have the redesigned naira notes and not to pump the old notes back into circulation. 

“What Nigerians need now is to have the redesigned notes for them to carry out their businesses. Let APC go to court and ask the court to impress on CBN to provide the new notes. 

Why are they trying to take us backwards if indeed they have good intentions? So, those old notes they have stashed in bullion vans will be worthless as tissue paper,” he said.