Lagos, Kaduna, 8 others ask Supreme Court to set aside Buhari’s directive on naira swap

Lagos, Kaduna, and eight other states have asked the Supreme Court to set aside President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on the redesign of the naira notes.

The president had in a nationwide broadcast on Thursday extended the validity of the old N200 notes till April 10.

He, however, declared that the old N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender effective from February 10 in defiance of the apex court’s order that the old naira notes remain legal tender pending the determination of the suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors on naira redesign policy next Wednesday.

Other states listed as plaintiffs in the suit marked SC/CV/162/2023 were Kogi, Zamfara, Ondo, Ekiti, Katsina, Ogun, Cross River, and Sokoto.

President Buhari, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as well as the Attorney-Generals of Bayelsa and Edo States, were listed as defendants in the suit.

In the motion, the states urged the Supreme Court to declare that the president erred with his directive on the old N500 and N1000 notes despite its (apex court) insistence that all the naira notes remain legal tender until the final determination of the suit.

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The president’s directive, according to them, was unconstitutional.

The court document on the motion was made available to journalists on Saturday.

It read: “ An order setting aside the directive contained in the special and presidential media Broadcast delivered on Thursday, the 16th of February, 2023 by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (the substantive 1st defendant in this suit) for being an unconstitutional overreach and usurpation of the judicial power of this court on a matter constituting the subject matter of the pending suit herein; and in respect whereof there subsists an order of interim injunction binding on all parties inclusive of the President who is a party through the named nominal defendant in person of the 1st defendant as the chief legal officer of the federation.

“Contrary to the order of the honourable court, the substantive 1st defendant through the President of the federation, and its agent, the Central Bank of Nigeria, have repeatedly released statements that the old Naira Notes are no longer legal tender, hence resulting in misleading the general public on what the status quo to be complied with, pendente lite, should be.”

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