Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has demanded the sum of N25 billion as damages from Senate President Godswill Akpabio over an alleged defamatory remark.

This was contained in a letter by Matthew Burkaa, counsel to Emefiele, which was made avail to journalists on Wednesday.

Emefiele is also demanding a public apology from Akpabio over a recent comments on the former CBN governor’s tenure in office.

Akpabio had accused Emefiele of implementing policies that led to the current economic hardship being experienced by millions of Nigerians.

“I remember President Obama saying you cannot know Washington until you get to Washington. So by the time we went in to look at the economic situation of the country, it was terrible,” Akpabio said in Port-Harcourt on Sunday.

He continued: “So you know that the former governor of central bank, we don’t even know what to charge him with.

“Whether to charge him for putting foam on top of a pail, or to charge him for illegal possession of firearms, or to charge him for printing notes without income. I don’t know what we’re going to charge him with.

“But what we know is that yes, there is hunger today because of the kind of policies and actions that they took and we recognise that, and I think every political party should recognise that there is hunger and we’re battling to ensure that Nigerians can sleep with their eyes closed.

“There is insecurity. We’re battling to ensure Nigerians can eat three square meals a day.

“But rest assured that we campaigned for this job, we campaigned and danced around the country. We will not let you down.

“We will get to the bottom of it. All we need is patience. The rot that has happened in Nigeria for so many years, for almost 60 years, cannot be solved in six months. So what we need is patience… patience from all quarters.”