Old N200, N500, and N1,000 naira notes must continue to be in use until December 31, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.
The Federal Government’s policy of redesigning the naira was also overturned by the Supreme Court, which ruled that it violated the Constitution of 1999.
The Attorney General of the Federation, the states of Bayelsa and Edo, and Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, declared that the defendants’ preliminary objections are overruled because the court has the authority to hear the case.
The court held that the conflict between the federal government and the states had to involve either law or facts, citing Section 23(2)1 of the constitution.
The supreme court further ruled that President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged the policy’s flaws and difficulties in his broadcast.
According to the court, the strategy has caused some people to engage in barter trade in the modern day in an effort to survive. The court further stated that the President’s defiance of the decree from February 8 is evidence of dictatorship.
In order to contest whether the establishment of the policy was legitimate or not, sixteen states of the Federation filed the lawsuit.
The initial lawsuit brought by the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara has been designated as the first matter on the cause list for a decision.
On February 22, Judge John Inyang Okoro, who presided over a seven-member panel of Justices, set today for the court to announce its ruling on the lawsuit.
The 16 states, led by Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, are asking the supreme court to nullify and set down the policy because it is putting innocent Nigerians through hardship.
They demanded that Buhari’s order be revoked on the grounds that the President had introduced and carried out the policy without consulting the CBN.