* CBN dares S/Court, insists old notes no more legal tender
* Lagos High Courts reject old notes, turn lawyers, litigants back
* CSO accuses APC govs of plotting to cause chaos
The Supreme Court in its ruling, had made an order that the apex bank (CBN) should not shut the door on naira swap on the 10th of February but should extend it to Feb 15 (today), when it would hear the matter.
Despite the federal government’s initial challenge of the order through the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, which later backed down and declared that it would abide by that declaration of the court, the governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele who is at the centre of the storm, has maintained sealed lips to the chagrin of suffering Nigerians.
Not even the deliberation and advice from the Council of State that the apex bank should print more of the new naira notes and where that was difficult, make the old ones that have been withdrawn available to ease the suffering of the masses, could make CBN change its stand on the policy.
The situation brought more confusion in the society as market men and women, banks and every transaction was left at the mercy, whims and caprices of individuals who decide what money to accept.
Emefiele continued to keep mum until Tuesday when he said that the old naira notes have ceased to be legal tender.
The apex bank boss during a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the monetary and currency redesign policy of the bank on Tuesday said there was no need for the bank to shift its ground.
The statement clearly contradicts the ruling of the country’s Supreme Court which gave an interim injunction for the currency to be on hold pending when it will pass judgement on the matter.
Emefielie said: “The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents.
“There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10.”
Earlier on Monday, the Branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza while briefing Journalists in Bauchi declared that the old Naira Notes of N200, N500 and N1000 have ceased to be legal tender in Nigeria since the 10th of February, 2023.
He advised customers to go to Central Bank offices and fill a form to deposit their old naira notes.
He said that “In the last 24 hours, we have been inundated by questions from various angles of the general public about our operational guidelines on the old currency notes, be that as it may, there are so many questions here and there which people have been asking about.”
According to him, “So for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is open to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria.”
“Customers are free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at the Commercial Banks anymore because the currency has ceased to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month.
Consequently, the management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money.
“The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange.”
Andaza further explained that “After filling the form, you generate a code, you either print it or come with it in your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained therein. In the form, you are expected to provide all the basic information about yourself, your account details and the amount you want to deposit.
“By the time you have done it correctly, you come to the CBN where the code will be accepted from you as well as the money, process and confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the money to avoid receiving fake notes because there are some fake notes in circulation now.
We can’t deploy staff, materials for February 25 polls – INEC
Meanwhile, the INEC warning is coming barely one week after the commission’s chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu had met with the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, where he received the apex bank’s assurance that the naira would be made available for it to meet all financial requirements to guarantee a hitch free poll
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Yahaya Bello gave the warning in Abuja on Tuesday at the North-central Stakeholders Roundtable on 2023 election, organised by the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA).
Bello said if nothing was done to address the cash crunch caused by the policies, INEC in the FCT and across the nation, INEC would find it difficult to deploy staff and materials for the election as most of the services required cash to obtain.
The INEC Commissioner noted, however, that apart from the cash challenge, the Commission was prepared for election as it had taken delivery of 80% materials for the polls and trained staff ahead of the exercise.
He said: “Honestly, I don’t see challenges because the commission has made a lot of preparations. A lot of materials have already been gotten. We have done some training. We are doing more training. We have made a lot of consultations with stakeholders. A lot of materials have been dispatched to the area councils which are at the local government level.
“When you talk about the challenge, sincerely, the challenge to this election as we are going about now in the FCT and by and large, I believe all over the nation is the cash policy. Because we have already enumerated and made our position clear to the authorities; the CBN, the federal government and what exactly how we conduct elections.”
Court quashes case against CBN’s naira redesign policy
In a related development, the Federal High Court, Awka, has dismissed the suit by the Incorporated Trustees of African Initiative Against Abuse of Public Trust seeking to stop the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), its Governor, Godwin Emefiele and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami.
The court dismissed the suit seeking to stop the CBN and their agents from taking any step to enforce the implementation of the naira redesign policy.
The court’s verdict, according to the ruling of the court, contained in the Certified True Copy of the enrolled order dated January 31, 2023 obtained by a New National Star newspaper, served to the parties, ordered that the suit be struck out by the trial judge, A. Nganjiwa, after considering the circumstances of the case and arguments of the counsels.
The court also awarded the sum of N300,000 as a cost against the plaintiff in favour of the CBN and Godwin Emefiele who are the 1st and 2nd defendants respectively.
Confusion as Lagos High Courts reject old notes, turn lawyers, litigants back
In Lagos, there was confusion on Monday at the state high courts as lawyers and litigants were unable to file their court processes using the old naira notes for payment.
Officials at the high court registries rejected the old naira notes, saying banks were no longer accepting them as legal tender.
The development brings a new twist to the lingering naira crisis the country is grappling with.
Account officers at both the Lagos Island and Ikeja High Court registries insisted that new naira notes should be paid by lawyers and litigants, explaining that their attempts to pay old naira notes collected from court users into the government account were denied by banks.
A staff at the Ikeja High Court registry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to speak on the matter, said they received a directive from their boss to stop collecting old notes because when they took old notes collected from court users to four different banks, namely FCMB, Polaris, UBA, and Fidelity, they rejected the old money.
The court official noted that, henceforth, lawyers and litigants must come with only the new naira notes.
One of the affected lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the registry at Osborne Division of Lagos High Court rejected the old notes and turned him back from filling his processes.
He lamented that the order of the Supreme Court that the old naira notes should remain in circulation was being ignored.