Lawyers for Reform on Thursday vowed to sue President Muhammadu Buhari in court if Stella Erhuvwuoghene Okotete is not removed as Executive Director of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, NEXIM, within seven days.
Members of the organization protested outside the National Assembly, claiming that the NEXIM leader, whom they characterized as a hairdresser, is unqualified by any measure to assume the role.
Addressing journalists during the protest, tagged “#RemoveStellaokotetenow”, the leader of the group, Barrister Oladotun Hassan, said the appointment of Stella Okotete as executive director of NEXIM by President Buhari in April 2017 was wrong going by the clearly stipulated requirements in the extant laws governing the bank.
Hassan claimed Okotete lacked the minimum 18 years of post-graduate job experience prior to her appointment, as well as the relevant academic degrees in financial accounting, banking, or any business-related courses.
He said: “What can only be gotten from fraudulently concocted curriculum vitae of Okotete is that she is a former counsellor and beauty salon hairdresser.
“This is an arrant disgrace and monumental embarrassment to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari that prides itself as an anti-corruption crusader.
“In the face of the law, specifically going by the Central Bank of Nigeria Act Regulations and Order 41(3) of the Senate Rule and by reason of her lack of capacity not to have served in the banking service for 18 years, Okotete is not fit and [does not] merit to continue to hold the [position of] Executive Director of NEXIM Bank. We, therefore, call on President Muhammadu Buhari to act decisively accordingly.
“We also request that Okotete should upon removal from office, be prosecuted for misleading the entire Nigerians with false misrepresentations used in securing the appointment.
“If nothing meaningful is not urgently done in respect of our demands on or before 7th December 2022, we shall not hesitate to seek legal sanction against President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria.”
The group leader went on to say that the initiative to remove Okotete was made in 2018 when a petition was sent to the then-Senator Sam Anyanwu-led Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions in the National Assembly.
