Fakoyejo OlalekanThe final Supreme Court judgement on the Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be delivered on Friday, 3 March 2023.
The Supreme Court, led by seven justices, revealed this on Wednesday, 22 February 2023, after they insisted that the case between 10 states against the Federal Government must be heard today.
Prime Business Africa had reported earlier that Justice John Okoro prevented any action that will prevent the hearing of the case.
The Justice said it doesn’t want the Supreme Court to be used as a scapegoat when it was asked by Lagos State’s attorney, Moyosore Onigbanjo, to prohibit the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, from representing the Federal Government over an act that contravened initial court orders, Punch reported.
“you are not a stranger to this country,” Justice Okoro said, adding “We don’t want a situation where the judiciary will be a scapegoat. We refuse to be the scapegoat”.
“We are hearing this matter today. We don’t intend to keep this matter longer,” the Judge said.
During the hearing of the case, a legal practitioner representing FG, Kanu Agabi, said the Supreme Court doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear the suit filed initially filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States before 13 other states joined them in the suit.
Agabi said with the plaintiffs didn’t add the CBN as a respondent in the suit despite mentioning the central bank 32 times in the states’ originating summons.
Also, the counsel to Jigawa state, Abiodun Owonikoko, asked the court to rule against President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive in a nationwide broadcast last week Thursday, 16 February 2023, to the CBN.
Buhari had informed CBN to only circulate the N200 notes, a directive that was seen as a breach by Owonikoko against the Supreme Court order last week Wednesday.
During the hearing today, Owonikoko said: “We urge the court to set aside the directive of President Buhari limiting the supreme court’s directive to only the old N200 note. It is a disrespect to the authority of the court.”
The final judgement has now been set for next week Friday.
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