House c’ttee summons Emefiele, others over virtual currency scheme

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition has summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, over the continued freezing of N12 billion held in accounts with Diamond Bank and belonging to the Virtual Currency Scheme.

Others expected to appear before the committee on June 6 are the Attorney General to the Government of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Mr. Uzoma Dozie and the Inspector General of Police, Abubaakar Idris.

Chairman of the House committee, Rep. Uzoma Nkem-Abonta issued the summons following the failure of the invited persons to honour two previous invitations in respect of a petition written by Dr. Philemon Gora on behalf of 60, 000 other Nigerians, who are participants in the Virtual Currency Scheme.

Expressing the committee’s frustration at the attitude of those summoned, Rep. Nkem-Abonta declared that “for this singular reason, I’m issuing a fresh summon for all those involved in this matter to appear before us on June 6.

“But before then, I want the inspector general to give protection to Dr. Gora because he needs it as 60, 000 Nigerians are on his neck on a daily basis. If anything happens to him, it won’t be funny at all.

“Please do that immediately because Nigerians must get their money back.”

Following the ruling by Rep. Abonta, aggrieved investors in the currency scheme present at the hearing began shouting and accusing the management of Diamond Bank of being behind their travails.

The angry investors threatened to attack the bank’s facilities nationwide if the bank fails to pay them.

The Daily Times reports that the petitioner had on May 18, informed the House committee that Diamond Bank had unlawfully frozen its account and withheld funds deposited in the account worth N12 billion.

Gora had assured the committee that he was ready to pay all the depositors as soon as the account is unfrozen.

According to him, he was informed that the account was frozen on the orders of the EFCC and CBN.