Ten states have asked the supreme court to declare the new directive of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), reintroducing the old N200 notes and declaring old N500 and N1,000 notes as unconstitutional.
On Thursday, Buhari said he directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to recirculate only the old N200 notes.
This is after the apex court did not vacate the order that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes are still legal tender.
This is after the apex court did not vacate the order that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes are still legal tender.
The plaintiffs, which comprise the 10 states in the ongoing suit, are Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara, Ekiti, Ondo, Katsina, Ogun, Cross-river, Lagos and Sokoto states.
They stated that by varying the order of the supreme court, the president has caused an “embarrassing dilemma as to which directives and order should be complied with between the order of the Supreme Court and the counter-directive of the first defendant, which was issued later in time.”
In the motion on notice, the states are praying the court for an order setting aside the directive in the special and presidential media broadcast, delivered on Thursday, February 16, 2023, by the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ( the substantive defendant in the suit) for being an unconstitutional overreach and usurpation of the judicial power of this court and a matter constituting the subject matter of the pending suit herein; and in respect whereof there subsists an order of interim injunction, binding on all parties, inclusive of the president, who is a party through the named nominal defendant in person of the first defendant as the chief legal officer of the Federation”.