Naira notes swap: We’ll comply with Supreme Court ruling – FG

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The Federal Government has said it will comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court suspending the February 10 deadline to swap old naira notes for new ones.

This was disclosed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, in an interview on Arise TV.

Malami however expressed the desire of the Federal Government to upturn the ex parte ruling which expires on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.

“An interim order was granted by the Supreme Court and that order was to lapse on Wednesday (February 15) and incidentally, that was the day the court fixed for hearing of the motion,” Malami said.

“With the position in mind, we have taken steps to file our objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter. Jurisdiction on the ground that when you talk of monetary policy, Central Bank is an indispensable and necessary party in the matter.

Three states of the federation -Kaduna, Zamfara, and Kogi had filed a suit against the Federal Government at the Supreme Court over the scarcity of old and new Naira notes due to the CBN naira redesign policy.

In an ex-parte motion through their counsel, AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha (SAN), the states urged the Supreme Court to grant them an interim injunction stopping the Federal Government either by itself or acting through the CBN, the commercial banks or its agents from carrying out its plan of ending the timeframe within which the now older versions of the 200, 500 and 1000 denominations of the Naira may no longer be legal tender on February 10, 2023.

Ruling on the exparte application, the Supreme Court temporarily stopped the Federal Government from banning the use of the old naira notes from February 10, 2023.