Illegal, Unlawful, Void & Archaic - PDP Kicks Against CBN's Policy of Banning Dollar Deposits

Posted by Odinaka on Mon 03rd Aug, 2015 - tori.ng

The PDP have kicked against the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to bar foreign currency deposits into domiciliary accounts.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh

In a statement signed by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have kicked against the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to bar foreign currency deposits into domiciliary accounts (Read Here). They described the decision as illegal, unlawful, void, archaic and communist in nature, stressing that the President should be reminded that as a country, Nigeria was in a democracy and not military administration as in 1984.

The party said that President Buhari’s regulations of the foreign exchange transactions in Nigeria where the administration was making it impossible for honest Nigerians to engage in free trade and regulate their personal activities as guaranteed by the constitution, was clearly an agenda to illegally impose a communist economic regime on Nigerians.

The statement read:

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wishes to bring to the notice of President Muhammadu Buhari that the apparent absence of an economic team in the third month of his administration is leading the country into economic quagmire and doldrums.

In the past, we had given examples of the devastating effect of lack of an economic team and a clear-cut fiscal policy by this administration as evidenced in the lull and painful decline in the stock market, spiral rate of inflation, the disastrous outing of the government team in bilateral talks during the recent visit to the United States of America and the shambolic state of our economy at present.

This confusion has been extended to operations and regulations of the foreign exchange transactions in Nigeria wherein the government is making it impossible for honest Nigerians to engage in free trade and regulate their personal activities as guaranteed by the constitution, and this is clearly an agenda to illegally impose a communist economic regime on Nigerians.

The most disturbing aspect of this communist economic agenda is the illegal and unlawful attempt to repeal the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Monitoring And Miscellaneous Provisions Act, otherwise known as Decree No 17 of 1995 and replace it with unilateral imposition of new regulations.

This Act remains the subsisting law regulating the operations of domiciliary accounts in Nigeria and by its provisions therefore, Nigerians are empowered to freely open and operate domiciliary accounts.

As such, any enactment and or regulation inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are deemed void. Thus, the recent foreign exchange transaction restrictions by this government are illegal, unlawful and void. Besides the provisions of the law, the PDP declares this administration’s archaic communist economic agenda as unworkable and unsustainable.”