El-Rufai, two other governors sue FG over new naira notes policy
Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) have sued the Federal government before the Supreme Court.
In their affidavit, the governors argue that the Demonetization Policy of the Federation, as it is being currently implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), contravenes the extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 and actual laws on the subject.
The governors equally urge the apex court to declare that the three-month notice given by the FGN and the CBN under the directive of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the expiration of which will render the old bank notes inadmissible as legal tender, is in gross violation of the provisions of Section 20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007.
According to them, the law specifies that w reasonable notice must be given before such a policy and that the limit cannot be outside that provided under Section Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.
They are of the opinion that though the naira redesign aims at encouraging cashless policy, it is not all transactions that can be conveniently carried out through electronic means.
The plaintiffs averred that the federal government has embarked on the policy within a narrow and unworkable time frame, and this has adversely affected Nigerian citizens within Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states as well as their governments, especially as the newly redesigned naira notes are not available for use by the people as well as the state governments.
“That the majority of the indigenes of the plaintiffs’ states who reside in the rural areas have been unable to exchange or deposit their old naira notes as there are no banks in the rural areas where the majority of the population of the states reside,” they averred.
No date has been fixed for hearing.
