Governors give Malami, Emefiele Tuesday last day to obey Supreme Court

The state governments that filed suit against the federal government over the naira redesign policy have given Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, SAN, and Minister of Justice Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, till Tuesday to implement the Supreme Court’s judgment.

On Tuesday, the state governments threatened to pursue contempt charges against the two senior officials if they disobeyed the apex court’s ruling to continue using the old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes alongside the new ones until December 31, 2023.

About a week after the court issued the order, the AGF and CBN had said nothing. Their silence has encouraged the Nigerian public and business community to stop accepting the obsolete currency…..Continue Reading

The Supreme Court’s enrolled order and Certified True Copy of its ruling allowing the use of old notes as lawful money for 10 months were delivered to the Federal Government on Friday.

Attorney for the three states that took the federal government to court over this issue—Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara—Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN)—revealed on Friday that Malami had been served with the enrolled order and the CTC of the judgment, adding that he expected immediate compliance with the judgment because the delay in service had given the government and the CBN an out.

To quote Mustapha: “The Attorney-General of the Federation has been served now, and we will take it up from there; if there is no cooperation now, we will initiate committal proceedings against the attorney-general and the CBN governor.”

Since the Federal Government has refused to implement the judgment, the plaintiffs in the suit will approach the court again to ensure compliance with the court’s order, Zamfara State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Junaidu Aminu said in an update on the effort to enforce compliance with the apex court’s order on Sunday.

The states, according to Aminu, will bring charges of contempt against the Federal Government on Tuesday.

A Copy of the Enrolled Order of the Supreme Court was recently served on the Attorney General of the Federation, he said. Awaiting their compliance with the court’s ruling on the naira notes. If they don’t cooperate by Monday, we’ll be filing suit on Tuesday.

“That is what Nigerians are waiting for,” the Attorney General said, demanding that Emefiele use the new naira notes to directly address the country’s citizens.

A return to court, this time on contempt charges against him and the Federal Government, was threatened.

According to the justice commissioner in Zamfara State, it is the AGF’s responsibility to order the CBN governor to carry out the court’s ruling over the naira notes.

For his part, Aminu stated, “The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, is the one who should direct the CBN to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling and enable the old naira notes to remain legal money until December 31.”

Ekiti State, Cross Rivers, Kogi, Rivers, and Ondo State’s attorneys general have all stated that their states will also be joining the suit.

It was decided that everyone would do all they could to make sure everything was in order.