The validity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes has been extended by the Supreme Court till December 31.
The CBN must continue to accept the old notes from Nigerians, according to a unanimous ruling from the court's seven-member panel, which was chaired by John Okoro.
The judge ruled that it was unlawful for President Muhammadu Buhari to order the designing of the new notes and the removal of the previous ones without first consulting the appropriate parties.
The lead judge, Emmanuel Agim, a panel member, also criticized the President for disobeying the court's ruling on February 8 that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes should continue to be used alongside the new ones in circulation.
He claimed that the president's announcement on February 16 that only N200 notes should continue to be accepted as legal cash made Nigeria's democracy appear hollow while tyranny has taken its place.
The court ruled that the old 200, 500, and 1,000 naira notes should remain legal cash. "It is not in dispute that the President refused to comply with the court's ruling," the court declared.
It's interesting that there isn't any evidence that the President's order to release N200 notes was followed.
I concur that the first defendant shouldn't be heard when the president has disobeyed this court's authority.
"Disobedience to a court's order exposes the nation's democracy as a phony pretense that has been replaced by dictatorship. This lawsuit has merit.
The contentious monetary policy, which was contested in front of the Supreme Court, had strict deadlines to remove the previous 200, 500, and 1,000 note designs from circulation last year.
Millions of people have been put through unimaginable agony as a result of the policy's shortage of currency notes in an economy that is heavily dependent on the informal sector and has a high percentage of unbanked people.
While the supply of the new notes fell well short of the volume required by citizens across the country to meet their most basic necessities, a deadline originally set for ending the legal tender status of the old Naira notes on January 31 was extended to February 10.
Three state governments, Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, filed a lawsuit against the federal government at the Supreme Court on February 3 asking for a change in policy due to the hardships the continuing scarcity of naira notes caused to their citizens.
Five days later, the court issued an interim ruling postponing the federal government's deadline and directing that both the old and new Naira notes should continue to be in circulation while the matter is still pending.
The CBN refused to budge in the face of the court's ruling, maintaining that the old notes had ceased to be legal money after the deadline of February 8 and that the replacement notes were still in short supply.
No comments: