The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied a report that its governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, now flies the top rated Canadian private jets chartered regularly by the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The apex bank explained that it only uses private and official chartered flights in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote and not-easily-accessible locations.
This was contained in a release made available to Sunday Tribune on Saturday and signed by its acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor.
The release said the use of private and official chartered flights had been in place long before Mr Emefiele assumed office.
It said it was on record that the past two CBN governors actively used chartered private jet services to meet urgent national assignments.
It added that neither Emefiele nor any of the deputy governors has used the services of private chartered flights and that it has not paid a kobo for private jet services since 2015, in response to the economic downturn and the cost-cutting stance of the government.
“In recognition of this critical need in its smooth operations, the CBN had in 1990 acquired a dedicated jet for this purpose and for urgent currency movement. This was however taken over by the military administration when there was an urgent need for it at the State House.”
The release also stated that, as against the report that Mr Emefiele flew a private chartered flight to mother’s burial last week, the CBN governor and his family flew a commercial Arik flight from Lagos to Benin, adding that the burial was a model in cost-cutting and demonstration of his modest ‘made in Nigeria philosophy’.
