Naira scarcity: Emefiele keeps Nigerians in suspense after meeting with Buhari

By Ukpono Ukpong

Again, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met with the Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, even as the purpose of the meeting was not made open.

According to insiders, the meeting was not unconnected to the scarcity of the new naira notes in the country.

The CBN governor who refused to speak with State House Correspondents after the meeting had on several fora insisted that the CBN Naira re-design and cash withdrawal restrictions policy has come to stay, even as he urged Nigerians to buy into it.

The meeting comes 24 hours after governors of the platform of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), described the CBN Naira re-design and cash withdrawal restrictions policy, has draconian and infringes on rights of Nigerians to use legitimately earned income as they wish.

The governors had also directed states attorney generals to join suit in 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, in a motion ex-parte filed on their behalf by their lawyer, AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha.

Recall on February 8, the Supreme Court in a ruling halted the move by the Federal Government to ban the circulation of the old Naira notes by February 10, 2023.
Justice John Okoro led a seven-man team of justices to temporarily stop the government’s deadline while ruling in an exparte application brought by three northern governments of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states.

The three northern states had prayed 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, in a motion ex-parte filed on their behalf by their lawyer, AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha.

READ ALSO: Valentine Season: Polaris Bank excites existing

Thee Attorneys-General and Commissioners of Justice of the three states are the plaintiffs while the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is the sole Respondent
Justice Okoro, who ruled on the motio exparte granted the application as prayed.

“An order of Interim Injunction restraining the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the commercial banks from suspending or determining or ending on Feb. 10,, the time frame with which the now older version of the 200, 500 and 1,000 denomination of the naira may no longer be legal tender pending the hearing and determination of their motion on notice for interlocutory injunction,” he ruled.

The judge adjourned until February 15, 2023, for hearing of the main suit.