The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend its current old banknotes’ withdrawal drive aimed at completely withdrawing old Naira notes from circulation effective from this Friday, February 10, nationwide.
The apex bank’s ruling was sequel to a suit filed by governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara).
The three governors had, in an ex-parte motion before the court, sought temporary order to stop President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the CBN from continuing with the implementation of the Naira redesign policy.
In the motion, the governors asked the court to declare that the currency swap policy as a violation of the provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, the Nigerian Constitution and other relevant laws.
Also, the governors want to declare that the three-month notice given by the CBN with authorisation of the President, wherein the older versions of the denominations will lose their legal tender status, is in flagrant violation of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act 2007, which requires that reasonable notice must be given on such a policy measure.
In the suit, the states’ Attorneys-General were the plaintiffs while the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Malam Abubakar Malami (SAN), as the only respondent.
The plaintiffs claimed that the Buhari regime failed to fulfill its responsibility to facilitate a seamless transition from the old banknotes to the new currencies.
The plaintiffs contended that the February 10 deadline set by the apex bank for depositing the old Naira notes was too short to address the challenges in the implementation of the policy, citing the shortage of new notes in Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states to justify their argument.
The governors said the policy’s short implementation timeline, coupled with its attendant chaos and the misery it is causing Nigerians was unacceptable.
They want a declaration of the court that in light of the plain stipulations of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act 2007, the federal government, acting through the CBN, lacks the authority to set a deadline for accepting and redeeming banknotes issued by the Bank, with the exception of the circumstances described in Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.
The Supreme Court in its ruling early today ordered the CBN to temporarily halt any plan to ban old Naira notes from circulation in a ruling by a seven-member panel led by Justice John Okoro, based on an ex-parte application by the three governors.
