Victor Ezeja
Nigeria’s Supreme Court has adjourned proceedings on the naira swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) till Wednesday, February 22 for a hearing of the consolidated suits by 10 states.
The apex court which heard the case on Wednesday, 8th February, had scheduled today for a hearing on the matter after it gave temporal order retraining CBN from going ahead with the implementation of the February 10 deadline for phasing out the old N1,000, N500, and N200 banknotes.
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Recall that three states of Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara had approached the Supreme Court to compel the Federal Government, the CBN to rescind the February 10 deadline for the old naira notes as Nigeria’s legal tender.
Prime Business Africa reports that other states, namely Bayelsa, Edo, Lagos, Niger, Kano, Ondo, Ekiti, had also applied to be joined in the suit against the CBN and the Federal Government.
At the resumed sitting today, CBN governor Godwin Emefiele stated that why there is a scarcity of the new naira notes after weeks of unveiling the new currencies, was because of what he called “Panic mop up of notes,” and hoarding.
“The CBN noticed that some of our leaders are buying the notes and storing them for whatever purposes.
“We have also noticed that some Nigerians are catalysing the time transition to charge exorbitant fees, these selfish actions for personal monetary gains are causes of hardship for Nigerians and come at the expense of lives and livelihood,” Emefiele stated.
A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by John Okoro is presiding hearing of the suit.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
