By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Nigerians are shocked that the Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, is blaming the woes of Naira on Oniwinde Adedotun, the founder of Aboki FX, the online platform that publishes in real-time, foreign exchange rates.
At a media briefing today, Friday, September 17, Emefiele accused Adedotun of sabotaging Nigeria’s economy by publishing the prevailing exchange rates which obtain on the street. He even threatened the arrest of the online publisher.
According to Emefiele, previous attempts to engage Adedotun to understand his model and how he arrives at the rates he publishes were unsuccessful.
Aboki FX collects data from FX traders on the streets and put it on its website. But Emefiele thinks the act is criminal without citing any law to support his accusation.
He says: “We found him as a Nigerian who lives in England and conducts this nefarious and criminal activity on our economy.
“It is economic sabotage and we’ll pursue him wherever he is. We will report him to international security agencies.
“We’ll track him, Mr Oniwinde, we’ll find you, because we cannot allow you to continue to conduct an illegal activity that kills our economy.”
But Nigerians have accused Emefiele of being the one wrecking Nigeria’s economy, in multiple tweets which make him a top trend in Nigeria’s Twitter.
@DrOlufunmilayo said: “Someone said AbokiFX damage of naira is unquantifiable. Not Buhari. Not Emefiele. Not crypto ban. Not the mad economic policies. Not the lunatic dictatorial tendencies. But AbokiFX is to blame. Many of you are mad. This is like Arsenal fans blaming LiveScore for losing a match.”
@ChukyUnfazed also said: “How is publishing exchange rate illegal? This Emefiele is a disaster. This man must never be forgotten as one of those who wrecked this country’s economy so bad.”
@adeyanjudeji said: “Emefiele is destroying the Nigerian economy.”
@alldatjas added: “Tyranny in its full glory. Imagine if Twitter had an office here in June, the Country Manager would probably still be in detention by now.”