By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele has said that some people are collecting dollars from Bureau De Change operators and using it to import weapons in order to harm Nigerians.
Emefiele made this clarification on Friday while speaking at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held at the apex bank’s headquarters in Abuja.
He said that the CBN decided to stop the sale of FOREX to Bureau De Change operators because they have become a source of foreign exchange for criminals to perform their nefarious activities.
The CBN Governor said, “It truly beats my imagination that Nigerians continued with this type of practice (selling dollars to BDC) that tended to promote illegal activities who are involved in graft and corrupt practices.
“We won’t support the corrupt tendencies of those who illegally buy dollars from our forex market, carry them in aircraft, buy arms and ammunition and bring them back into the country and conduct crimes. Whether it is Boko Haram, banditry and other nefarious activities.”
“Why will CBN give people our forex to go and buy arms? And that is what people want us to continue to do. We cannot do that. What we are saying is that if you have any legitimate need for forex, take it to the bank and they will sell you FOREX.”
Meanwhile, the Governor has threatened that the apex bank will go after the owner of Aboki FX, an online platform that gathers the black market rates in Nigeria.
The apex bank governor said the owner of the website, a London based Nigerian, Oniwinde Adedotun, would be made to face the full wrath of the law for economic sabotage.
This is based on the rate of the rise of the naira on the parallel market which is currently trading at N570/dollar.
“On Aboki FX, yes unfortunately the Central Bank wrote a memo to banks and asked those banks to provide information about AbokiFX. We have been studying the activities of AbokiFX in the last two and half years.
“There was a particular time I called our colleagues to call the so-called owner of AbokiFX. We want to understand his model and the basis on how he came about advertising those rates.
“We found him as a Nigerian who lives in England and produces this nefarious and criminal activity on our economy. It is an economic sabotage and we will pursue him wherever he is.
“We will report him to international agencies, we will track him, Mr Oniwinde- we will find you, because we cannot allow you to continue to conduct an illegal activity that kills our economy.
“For those who think they are smart and they want to continue to sabotage the efforts of the Central Bank in running this economy for the good of Nigerians and this government, we will make life very difficult for you.”
Emefiele revealed that the company was registered in the UK in November 2015, adding that the owner had claimed that there are other Nigerians who have significant interest in the business.
“But he does not want to name them. So, who are these significant persons behind him? Why are they hiding? This is on UK’s finding records and we will go there and conduct those investigations.
“He and the company have over 25 bank accounts with about eight banks in both naira and dollar with significant turnover also showing him simply milking the system through speculative activities on the Naira and collecting his proceeds in cash through a particular ATM in London,” he added.
He alleged that CBN preliminary findings revealed that AbokiFX was built for the purpose of foreign exchange manipulations and speculations.
“He gets Naira notes and uses it to purchase dollars, take a position and change the rates over a given period, sell the dollars they purchased and make a profit. This is completely illegal; it is unacceptable and we will pursue them,” he added.
He warned companies patronising AbokiFX to desist or face CBN sanction.
