The supreme court says it will deliver judgment in the suit challenging the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on March 3. The seven-member panel of the apex court communicated the decision on Wednesday, TheCable reports
Recall that the old 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes were supposed to lose their legal tender status on January 31. However, due to a lack of new notes and public outrage, the CBN was forced to extend the deadline for exchanging old currency notes to February 10.
Last week, the Supreme Court scheduled today as the court preceding for challenging the new naira notes resign where as the seven-member apex court panel led by John Okoro said the interim court order delivered on February 8 was still binding, pending when the substantive suit would be heard.
At the last sitting on 15 February, two states –Edo and Bayelsa joined the side of the federal government in the suit, while seven others joined the side of the original three plaintiffs, which the newly-joined co-plaintiffs were Cross River (South-south), Sokoto (North-west), Lagos (South-west), Ogun (South-west), Katsina (North-west), Ondo (South-west) and Ekiti (South-west) states.
President Muhammadu Buhari later announced that the old 200 naira note can still be used while the 500 and 1000 naira notes are no longer legal tender, and Nigerians are implored to take them to the nearest CBN office for deposition.
The argument against the Naira redesign policy
Ahead of today’s sitting, there had been no notable improvement regarding the Naira scarcity. Many Nigerians had remained optimistic about an extension in the use of the old notes, especially with the previous decision by the apex court.
On February 8, the supreme court had stopped the CBN from effecting the deadline following an ex parte application brought by the three states. Several states approached the apex court to be joined in the suit.
The plaintiffs are arguing that the implementation of the policy has caused untold hardship for Nigerians. Some of the governors argued that the redesign policy was a means to make the citizens unhappy with the ruling party ahead of the general elections.
Supreme Court statement
The supreme court disclosed that it would not allow the federal government and states to use the judiciary as a scapegoat in the legal dispute regarding the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according a report by TheCable
A seven-member panel of the court headed by Inyang Okoro said this on Wednesday while consolidating various suits filed by different states seeking to stop the full implementation of the naira redesign policy.
“We want to make it very clear that we are going to hear this matter today because we don’t want a situation where the judiciary will be made a scapegoat,” Okoro said. “With the way this matter is going, they are looking for a scapegoat and we refuse to be that scapegoat.
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