Naira Crisis: The Supreme Court sets a decision date of March 3

The Federal Government’s decision to prohibit the use of old N200, N500, and N1000 banknotes as legal cash was challenged by states in unified action, and the Supreme Court on Wednesday slated March 3 for the delivery of its judgement.

The case was cleared for decision by a seven-member panel of the supreme court after all parties adopted their argumentative submissions. Remember that even while only three northern states—Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara—had initially asked the Supreme Court to reverse the FG’s decision, other states finally convinced the panel, presided over by Justice Inyang Okoro, to include them as parties interested in the case.

The following states were added as parties in the lawsuit by the Supreme Court:

Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Sokoto, Abia, Jigawa, Kano, Rivers, and Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The states are requesting that the Naira Crisis: The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commercial banks, and President Muhammadu Buhari are ordered by the Supreme Court to restore the old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes as legal cash in Nigeria.

For disobeying the Supreme Court’s directive to extend the deadline for the usage of old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, the governors of Kogi, Zamfara, and Kaduna, as well as Malami, became the subject of contempt proceedings.

In a fresh petition submitted to the high court, the three states—the original plaintiffs in the litigation challenging the Federal Government’s naira swap policy—warned Malami and Emefiele of the repercussions of their continuous disobedience of the top court’s February 3 judgement.

And because the policy is making innocent Nigerians suffer, the states, led by Kaduna and Zamfara, are requesting that the Supreme Court annulled it and set it aside. The states demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive be revoked on the grounds that he had usurped the authority of the Central Bank of Nigeria or CBN.