PDP faults regulation of domiciliary accounts

• Accuses Buhari of imposing communist economic regime

From Taiwo Amodu, Abuja

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has faulted the regulation of foreign exchange transactions in Ni­geria by the present admin­istration.

A national daily (not Daily Sun), had, last week, reported a directive from the nation’s apex bank, the Cen­tral Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ,which stopped deposits into domiciliary accounts.

The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Sec­retary, Olisa Metuh, faulted the directive , describing it as a flagrant subversion of the existing provisions of the Foreign Exchange Moni­toring And Miscellaneous Provisions Act, otherwise known as Decree No.17 of 1995, which allows opera­tors of domiciliary accounts to make savings and with­drawals from such accounts.

The party further dis­missed the move as an im­position of communist eco­nomic policy on Nigerians.

The statement read in part:”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’s 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.

“In a desperate attempt to create a semblance of move­ment out of the clearly mo­tionless and stoic state of affairs of this government, they have reeled out bans and complete clampdown on free trade.

“One begins to wonder therefore, whether we are not heading back to the era of import duty licenses and regulation of commodity prices.

“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.”