The case against the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy has been postponed until March 3, 2023, by the Nigerian Supreme Court.
The judgement was announced by the seven-member panel of the supreme court on Wednesday.
Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara brought the case before the supreme court to stop the federal government from enforcing the deadline for the usage of old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
The governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) opposed the lawsuit, claiming that the goal of the strategy was to make the ruling party unpopular before the elections.
At the hearing, six more states—Rivers, Kano, Niger, Jigawa, Nasarawa, and Abia—joined the lawsuit, bringing the total to 16.
Once the three states filed an ex parte application, the supreme court blocked the CBN on February 8 from enforcing the deadline. Afterwards, several states—including Ondo, Ekiti, Katsina, Ogun, Cross River, Lagos, and Sokoto states—appealed to the supreme court to join the case.
The plaintiffs contend that the implementation of the program has put Nigerians through unimaginable misery.
Abdulhakeem Mustapha, speaking on behalf of the states of Kaduna and Kogi, requested that the supreme court overrule the AGF’s preliminary objection to the lawsuit for disobeying the court’s order of February 8.
Abiodun Owonikoko, speaking on behalf of Jigawa State, requested that the court overturn the instruction in President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech from February 15.
“We implore the court to overturn President Buhari’s order restricting the supreme court’s order to the old N200 note only. It is disrespectful to the court’s authority,” he remarked.
The Lagos attorney general, Moyosore Onigbanjo, also requested that the court forbid the AGF or President Buhari from receiving an audience until they abide by the February 8 ruling.
According to him, the state government itself was sued, not the inhabitants of Lagos.
The policy, he claimed, “has affected Lagos State and is preventing the government from fulfilling its constitutional obligations.”
The ruling cannot be delivered until after the Saturday, February 25, presidential election due to the highest court’s delay.