BY: News Peddlers
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| Nigeria currency and the Supreme Court |
The Supreme Court set March 3 for a hearing on the governors' lawsuit against the Buhari regime over naira notes.
At least 17 states have joined a consolidated suit demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari withdraw from abruptly redesigning the national currency.
After hearing from dozens of lawyers on both the governors' and federal government's sides, the Supreme Court announced that a decision would be issued next month.
The verdict will be rendered after the presidential election on February 25. The court had previously ordered that the old notes be kept in circulation.
During today's hearing, arguments centred on a contempt decision against Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, who had failed to implement the court's decision to allow old notes to circulate until a substantive ruling on the matter was issued.
The states, which included Kaduna and Lagos, sued the Buhari administration earlier this month, claiming that changing banknotes at this time would harm citizens. Banks have been unable to issue new notes to Nigerians, resulting in economic hardship.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, which issued the new notes in response to Mr Buhari's directive, stated that it would try to make the much-desired N500 and N1,000 notes available.
Details shortly...