Amid the accusation of deliberately concocting a baseless story to destabilise the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Daily Trust Newspaper has issued a statement defending its story.
The Daily Trust, in its response statement titled “N631/$1: We stand by our story,” published on Thursday, said that it is not only standing by its story but willing to provide facts to support its claims.
The media organisation accused of distorting the exchange rate system, which impacted greatly on the differentials between the parallel and official CBN windows, insisted that its story wasn’t concocted and neither was it “filled with outright falsehood,” as claimed by the CBN.
Read also: Naira falls after CBN denies devaluation
The said story, which was published on Wednesday, May 31, stated that the apex bank sold “dollars to bidders at the Importers and Exporters (I&E) window at the rate of N631 per $1.”
Daily Trust said that story, based on a thorough, verifiable investigation, contained three facts and one interpretation.
It read, “That the CBN sold dollars to banks on behalf of customers at the same rate on the said window yesterday; that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had spoken of his government’s resolve to unify Nigeria’s exchange rate markets; and that he met with CBN Governor Godwin Emiefele on assumption of office Tuesday. All of these facts, we stand by them.”
The organisation said that only a spontaneous but sudden one-day change in exchange value between both markets like that on Wednesday, where there existed a N169.4 difference, could have been made possible by a policy change by the government.
It said, “And only the CBN has the power to do that overnight, regardless by what name it is called.”
Daily Trust insisted that it has “evidence of those who bought the dollar at the reported rate, and we challenge the CBN to provide any facts to the contrary.”
