By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned a case instituted by the state governments against the Federal Government challenging the implementation of the naira notes redesign.
The apex court adjourned the case to March 3 for judgement.
A seven-man panel of the apex court okayed the matter for judgement after all the parties adopted their briefs of arguments.
It will be recalled that though only three northern states- Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara- initially approached the Supreme Court to challenge FG’s decision, other states subsequently persuaded the Justice Inyang Okoro led panel to join them as interested parties in the matter.
The states the court joined as parties in the suit were: Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Sokoto, Abia, Jigawa, Kano, Rivers and President Muhammadu Buhari’s homestate, Katsina.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had extended the deadline for the swap of old N200, N500, and N1,000 from January 31 to February 10 following complaints by many Nigerians.
The Supreme Court, after a suit filed by the states, held that the Federal Government, the CBN, commercial banks must not continue with the February 10 deadline pending the determination of a notice in respect of the issue on February 22.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari, in a national broadcast last Thursday, directed the apex bank to release old N200 notes into circulation to co-exist with new N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes for 60 days — by April 10, 2023.
He also said old N500 and N1,000 banknotes cease to be legal tender in Nigeria.
Dissatisfied with the President’s decision, some state have filed a contempt suit against the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, insisting that they acted in bad fate by withdrawing the legal tender status on the old notes of 500 and 1000 Naira.
