Old Naira Notes: Akeredolu Urges Buhari, CBN To Obey Supreme Court Order 

BY EDMOND ODOK – With the biting Naira scarcity still persisting nationwide, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling on the old Naira notes validity without further delay

The Governor said in a statement issued at the weekend in Akure, the state capital that the President should act in good faith by directing the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to comply with immediate reversal to the status quo on the N200, N500, and N1000 old notes.

According to Akeredolu; “We enjoin the Federal Government to obey the ruling of the Supreme Court immediately as there is no other alternative open to it.

“As we enjoin the officials of the Federal Government who may be directly involved in putting into effect the spirit and the letter of the Supreme Court ruling to do so immediately, the Ondo State Government will not hesitate to proceed against persons and institutions whose activities impede its ability to discharge statutory obligations to the people.”

The Governor, who applauded the Supreme Court justices for being courageous in their well-considered ruling, maintained that the he Buhari-led administration was “misadvised” by Mr Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

“The Government and the people of Ondo State received the news of the ruling of the Supreme Court on the punitive implementation of a monetary policy, hurriedly packaged to achieve a pernicious end by Mr Godwin Emefiele, with great relief.”

“The CBN Governor and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice misadvised the President to assume powers of an Emperor answerable only to himself and no other authorities as enshrined in the law.

“It is deplorable to witness small businesses collapse with unbelievable rapidity. We have been regaled with tales of the dehumanisation of ordinary Nigerians who have been forced to strip themselves naked in banking halls weeping to be given their monies kept with the banks. Some have lost their lives, needlessly, for being unable to access their deposits in the banks upon demand.”

The Ondo State Chief Executive said the CBN governor acted most irresponsibly by claiming to be exercising powers that the CBN Act does not invest in his office.

“He was quoted as saying that he was fighting corruption, money laundering and vote- buying. He acted, ultra vires, goaded by his political permutations. The AGF equally misled the President to act beyond the limits of his executive powers.

“Nigerians have been punished unduly. As the Supreme Court has pronounced, the law must be allowed to rule. There are statutory functions allotted to bodies in the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

“These bodies must be allowed to exercise those functions. Anyone purporting to act in contravention of the extant laws does so, either ignorantly or mischievously. The letters of the law are simple and understandable if the people in authority embrace less mischief.”

For Akeredolu, it is congratulations to the States which challenged this obnoxious policy implementation with the “hope that our banks will release the deposits of Nigerians in their custody upon demand forthwith as there will be grave consequences for continued seizure of the hard-earned monies of citizens.

“There is no gain asserting the obvious. The whole policy may have been well conceived. Its implementation has been politically driven. The CBN Governor is a partisan of injustice and oppression.

“Most Governments, perhaps with the exception of a negligible few motivated by the possibility of deriving unexpressed political advantages, cannot meet simple obligations to their citizens. It is most unfortunate. There is no justification for the pains to which our people have been subjected for obvious political reasons”.

Recalled the Supreme court had, in a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel of Justices led Justice Emmanuel Agim on, Friday, March 3, held that the old banknotes should remain valid legal tenders until December 31, 2023.

The apex Court further ruled that during the period specified, the old Naira notes should exist alongside the redesigned currencies.