The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from implementing the February 10 deadline for the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes to stop being legal tenders.
The ruling was delivered following a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice John Okoro, which unanimously granted an interim injunction restraining the FG, CBN, commercial banks etc from implementing the February 10, deadline for the old 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes to stop being a legal tender, according to Channels Television.
The court further held that the FG, CBN, commercial banks must not continue with the deadline pending the determination of a notice on notice on in respect of the issue on February 15.
By this ruling, the old Naira notes continue to be legal tenders in Nigeria even after the February 10 deadline issued by the apex bank.
Recall that on February 3, three state governments including Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara approached the court to file an ex-parte motion to halt the CBN’s naira redesign policy.
Commenting on the ruling, the lawyer to the three state government, AbdulHakeem Mustapha (SAN), said they dragged the Federal Government and the apex bank to the highest court because the policy is causing hardship on Nigerians, especially those in the rural areas.
“We invoke the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court when there is a dispute between the state government and the Federal Government. It is one of the few occasions where the Supreme Court act as the original jurisdiction. So, we invoked the powers of the Supreme Court to hear this application,” the senior advocate said.
“The reason for it is that as well-intentioned as this policy of the Federal Government on this naira redesign, it is causing hardship all over the country. As we can all see, banks are being harassed, Nigerians are suffering, especially the downtrodden, even in the urban areas they are having difficulty, but it is more excruciating in the rural areas.
“So, the three state governments – Zamfara, Kaduna and Kogi deemed it fit for us to invoke the powers of the Supreme Court to intervene.”