The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has reacted to news reports that he visited embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele at Kuje prison in Abuja on Tuesday.
The monarch’s spokesman, Moses Olafare in an interview with Vanguard on Wednesday said Oba Ogunwusi was at the correctional facility at the instance of a Non-Governmental Organisation, owned by one of his wives, Queen Temitope, Hopes Alive Initiative, HAI, which is on advocacy for the correction centre.
He said the programme, which was organised in partnership with Kuje correctional authority, centred around giving hope to inmates on reintegration into society after completing their terms, and the Ooni was part of it, in commemoration of his eighth anniversary.
“The intent of those spreading the news was to blackmail the monarch; there is nothing hidden about the event. In any case, the king never met Emefiele because it was an official event organised by the NGO in conjunction with the Kuje Correction Centre.
“The programme centres around giving hope to the inmates that, after serving out their terms, they still have hope to reintegrate back to the society. The Arole Ooni was invited to chair the event in commemoration of his eighth anniversary on the throne.
“What is exclusive about a public programme where different public figures spoke and representatives of the inmate also spoke? How then did the Ooni manage to meet Emefiele?
“We must be careful with how people spread falsehoods about people. The video of the event is available to the public. I am not even sure Emefiele attended the programme because he is only in detention and not an inmate yet, so why link the programme to Emefiele? It is simply to achieve blackmail, he added.
Recall that Emefiele was dragged to court on a six-count charge bordering on procurement fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He was accused of using his position to confer a corrupt advantage on Sa’adatu Yaro, a staff of CBN, by awarding a contract for the procurement of 43 vehicles worth N1.2 billion between 2018 and 2020.
It would be recalled that Emefiele had earlier been arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS) for over four months before he was picked up by the anti-graft agency.
The former apex bank chief had since been granted N300m bail is yet to perfect conditions for his release.
Following his inability to meet the bail condition, the former CBN governor will be staying in the correctional centre until 2024.
