Jonathan Reserves The Right To Suspend Sanusi- Legal Practitioner

The Chairman of National Newspaper Editorial Board, Mr Chris Akiri on Tuesday supported the claim by President Goodluck Jonathan that he reserves the right, constitutionally, to suspend the Governor of the Central Bank.

Mr Kiri, who is also a legal practitioner, is making this claim contrary to the feelings of some members of the House of Representatives.

Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Mr Kiri insisted that “Some members of the House of Representatives are wrong while the president is right,”  explaining that “a cursory look at the provisions of the CBN Act relating to the appointment or removal of the governor of the Central Bank will show that they are wrong.

“Section 8(1) of that Act, empowers the president to appoint the governor or deputy governors of the bank. When you go to Section 11 (1)(F), it says the president can remove the governor of the Central Bank,” he said.

He also noted that people querying the president’s power to suspend or remove the Central Bank’s governor do so on the basis of Section 11 (1)(C), which says “the Governor of the Central Bank, ceases to be governor, if he has perpetrated certain atrocities that can be categorised under serious misconduct”.

Mr Akiri also called for the prosecution of the suspended Central Bank Governor, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, saying that since “he is alleged to have committed such atrocity, then he has to be probed and investigations have to be conducted into the allegations”

He said the Federal Government was trying to set up a panel that would investigate the allegations levelled against Mr Sanusi, insisting that to that effect, “they had to suspend him” from office.

“You can sue for wrongful termination of appointment, you can sue for wrongful dismissal” but warned that “you cannot sue for wrongful suspension,” he added.

With less than four months to the expiration of Sanusi’s tenure as governor, the legal practitioner hailed the nomination of Sanusi’s successor by the presidency. He described it as timely, adding that the nominee can go through the screening process before the time finally arrives for him to resume office.

He also said that the suspended governor was guilty of violating the provision of Section 50(3)(D) of the CBN Act as stipulated by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. According to Mr Akiri, the Act mandates the CBN Governor to “on a monthly basis, render an account of the returns of the bank”.

He goes further to quote Section 50(5), which mandates the CBN Governor to “send such returns to the president on a monthly basis” reiterating the allegations of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria that “he has never done that since he assumed office in 2009”.

Mr Akiri also noted the illegal donations of money and colossal investments in an Islamic Bank in Malaysia as some of the financial recklessness the Federal Government hinged its decision to suspend Mr Sanusi.