- Court stops CBN, Buhari from shifting currency deadline
- EFCC arrests Abuja banker for hoarding N29m new notes
BY FESTUS OKOROMADU
Three governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress have sued the Federal Government over the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) dragged the Federal government before the Supreme Court.
The states are seeking a declaration that the Demonetization Policy of the Federation being currently carried out by the CBN under the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari is not in compliance with the extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 and actual laws on the subject.
They are also asking the court to make a declaration that the three-month notice given by the Federal Government and the CBN under the directive of the President, the expiration of which will render the old bank notes inadmissible as legal tender, is in gross violation of the provisions of Section 20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 which specifies that reasonable notice must be given before such a policy and that the limit cannot be outside that provided under Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kaduna State, Aisha Dikko, in an affidavit, averred that although the naira redesign policy was introduced to encourage the cashless policy of the Federal Government, it is not all transactions that can be conveniently carried out through electronic means.
Dikko also pointed out that the Federal Government has embarked on the policy within a narrow and unworkable time frame, and this has adversely affected Nigerian citizens within Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States as well as their governments, especially as the newly redesigned naira notes are not available for use by the people as well as the state governments.
“That the majority of the indigenes of the plaintiffs’ states who reside in the rural areas have been unable to exchange or deposit their old naira notes as there are no banks in the rural areas where the majority of the population of the states reside,” she averred.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the matter.
Meanwhile, a new twist was on Monday added to the ongoing drama of scarcity of the redesigned new naira notes as Justice Eleoje Enenche of a High Court, Federal Capital Territory, gave an order restraining the Federal Government and 27 listed commercial banks from suspending, stopping, extending or interfering with the currency redesignation terminal date of February 10 or issuing any directive that may render the date inconsequential.
Also restrained were President Buhari, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele.
In a motion ex parte filed by five of the 18 political parties, Justice Enenche also granted an order directing the CEO’s of the banks and their alter egos to show cause why they should not be arrested and prosecuted for the economic and financial sabotage of the country by their hoarding, withholding, not paying or disbursing the new N200, N500 and N1000 bank notes despite supply of such notes by the CBN.
The order also ties the hands of bank CEO’s and their staff who have been alleged to be hoarding the new bank notes and trading with them thereby causing untold hardship to ordinary citizens.
The applicants argued that politicians who apparently were in possession of huge illicit funds were the ones who wanted the policy suspended.
In another development, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday said it has arrested the operation manager of a commercial bank in Federal Capital Territory for hoarding the redesigned Naira notes worth N29 million.
The Commission in a statement said the operations manager was arrested after refusing to load the bank’s Automated Teller Machines despite having N29 million in the vault.
The Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren made this known in a statement on Monday.
“Before he was whisked away for further questioning, the operatives ordered the loading of all the ATMs and the payment of the stipulated amount across the counter to the delight of the distraught customers who had spent hours in queues without getting the new notes,” the statement read.
This discovery, which indicated a sabotage of the government’s monetary policy by some banks, was made by the EFCC in continuation of the ongoing surveillance and visit to banks across the country to access their vaults and verify whether they were deliberately refusing to dispense the redesigned Naira notes.
“More than five bank branches were covered today by the operatives in Abuja. Similar exercises are ongoing in zonal commands across the country,” the EFCC said.
The arrest came two days after the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission apprehended the manager of a bank in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, for loading ATMs with cash bundles wrapped with nylon, and as such, could not be dispensed through the machines.
