APC not aware of decision to redesign naira – Party chieftain

The chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, said despite the seeming split in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, over the naira redesign policy, the chances of the party winning the elections remains bright.

“Yes, we are not happy with the policy, because we are not even contacted, it was between President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, but, I’m assuring you that things will be alright and in the end, APC will win [the] Presidency, states, even Senate and other seats,” he boasted.

Gaya made the declaration while responding to allegations of vote buying levelled against him by the NNPP’s Kano South candidate, AbduRahaman Kawu Sumaila.

Gaya said the government haphazardly conceived the policy and that the APC as a party was not aware of it.

“You know there is a distinction between the government and the party. Our party, APC, will not allow this kind of policy to be slammed on citizens,” he said.

He added: “We are attacking the system, because if there is a problem with the head you have to correct it; this decision on naira redesign was taken between President Buhari and the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele; we are not saying he is alone in this but at least we should have been contacted for advise.”

Responding to the allegations of votes buying through his N5,000 empowerments programmes, Gaya, said: “Who says distribution of empowerments, now or five years back is vote buying? Let me educates Kawu Sumaila a bit. Vote buying is done on the day of elections, by whichever means, no matter how small the amount [of money].”

He said: “Now, what we are doing is simply sympathizing with the masses who are seriously hit by the naira redesign programme. Go to villages, [and see people who] cannot even afford just N200.”

On the allegation that he has not made any impact on his constituency, he responded thus: “I have a whole book of 186 pages that I published on every project which I have executed, so Kawu Sumaila should prepare for serious defeats just like the other times I seriously defeated him.”