The Supreme Court on Wednesday, February 8, temporarily stopped the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from withdrawing the old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes from circulation.
The apex bank had scheduled Friday, February 10, as the deadline for the old naira notes.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the apex court delivered the ruling in a suit filed by Governors Nasir El-Rufai, Yahaya Bello and Bello Matawalle of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara respectively.
The three Governors had in the ex parte motion before the apex court seek temporary order to stop President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime and the Central Bank of Nigeria from continuing the implementation of the Naira redesign policy.
The Governors had in the motion asked the court to declare that the demonetisation policy of the regime is in viol@tion of the extant provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, the Nigerian Constitution and relevant laws.
The governors also asked the court to declare that the three-month notice issued by the CBN with authorisation of the President, wherein the older versions of the denominations will lose their legal tender status is in flagrant viol@tion of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act 2007, which states that reasonable notice must be given.
They are also requesting a declaration from the court that, in light of the plain stipulations of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act 2007, the federal government, acting through the CBN, lacks the authority to set a deadline for accepting and redeeming banknotes issued by the Bank, with the exception of the circumstances described in Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.
