S’Court extends validity of old naira notes as protests spread nationwide
Whereas the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed the validity of the use of old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes as legal tenders in Nigeria contrary to the surreptitious stand of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), destructive protests are beginning to go nationwide.
Only yesterday, three people lost their lives in parts of the country as three bank compounds were set ablaze owing to back and forth stand of the apex bank and commercial banks on old notes.
Also the same yesterday, born-fire were set up by angry youths in major highways across the nation including the ever busy Lagos Ibadan-Expressway.
Meanwhile, at the continued hearing yesterday, the apex court maintained that the February 8 hearing which paused the implementation of the February 10 deadline ban on the use of old naira notes still subsists.
The clarification from the court followed a complaint by Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), lawyer to the Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states respectively.
he PUNCH reports that a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court last Wednesday in a unanimous ruling granted an interim injunction restraining the Federal Government from implementing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s February 10 deadline for the swapping of the old naira notes with the new ones.
The judgement followed a motion ex-parte on behalf of three northern states Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, who on February 3rd filed a suit seeking to halt the implementation of the CBN’s policy.
On Wednesday, the apex court adjourned a hearing in the suit banning the use of the old naira to Wednesday, 22nd February 2023.
This is coming after nine joined the suit initially filed by Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara states.
The states are Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Sokoto states bringing the new total of plaintiffs to ten. On the other hand, Edo and Bayelsa have filed to be joined as respondents.
The seven-man panel led by Justice John Okoro ordered them to amend their processes to be heard as one.
