The Supreme Court upheld the use of old 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes on Wednesday.
The apex court upheld the February 8 hearing, which halted the implementation of the February 10 deadline ban on the use of old naira notes.
The court’s clarification came in response to a complaint filed by Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), a lawyer for the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, respectively.
The court’s clarification came in response to a complaint filed by Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), a lawyer for the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, respectively.
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Last Wednesday, a seven-member Supreme Court panel unanimously granted an interim injunction preventing the Federal Government from enforcing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s February 10 deadline for exchanging old naira notes for new ones.
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The decision followed an ex-parte motion filed on behalf of three northern states, Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, who filed a suit on February 3rd seeking to halt the CBN’s policy implementation.
The Supreme Court adjourned a hearing in the case prohibiting the use of the old naira to Wednesday, February 22, 2023.
This comes after nine states joined the suit originally filed by Kogi, Kaduna, and Zamfara.
The new plaintiffs are from Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, and Sokoto states, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to ten. Edo and Bayelsa, on the other hand, have filed to be joined as respondents.
The seven-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, ordered that their processes be combined so that they could be heard as one.
However, Mustapha stated during the hearing that the apex government and its agencies allegedly directed the rejection of the old notes, thereby failing to comply with the February 8 court order.
According to him, the plaintiff filed a notice of noncompliance with the February 8 court order.
“The order has been flouted by the government. We are talking of executive lawlessness here. We have filed an affidavit to that effect… We want the court to renew the order for parties to be properly guided,” he said.
In his response, Justice Okoro requested that Mustapha file a proper application and present his complaints. He claimed that doing so would allow the respondent to respond appropriately.
According to Okoro, there was no need for the court’s order to be renewed because the order issued on February 8 was made pending the determination of the plaintiff’s motion for injunctions.
He, on the other hand, maintained that the order was still in effect because the motion had not yet been heard