FG: Why Supreme Court Should Strike out Suit against Naira Redesign

The federal government has argued before the Supreme Court that the suit filed by three states challenging the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) February 10 deadline to phase out the use of old naira notes should be dismissed.

The reasons were contained in a preliminary objection to the suit filed by Mr Mahmud Magaji and Tijanni Gazali, lawyers representing the Attorneys-General of the Federation (AGF), who is the sole respondent in the suit.

One of the main reasons given by the federal government is that the Supreme Court lacked the necessary jurisdiction to hear the case in the first place.

The AGF claimed that the suit should have been filed in a Federal High Court rather than the Supreme Court, as the plaintiffs did.

Furthermore, the respondent contended that “the plaintiffs have equally not demonstrated a reasonable cause of action” against it.

The respondent stated in the 11 grounds of objection to the suit that the defendants are challenging the powers of the Federal Government of Nigeria through its agency, the Central Bank of Nigeria, to withdraw old banknotes and replace them with new ones.

The plaintiffs’ suit, according to AGF, is about the powers granted to the CBN by the CBN’s 2007, Act to call in its banknotes and issue new ones.

“This suit is an abuse of the legal system.

The plaintiffs lack locus standi to bring this action. The plaintiffs have no plausible cause of action against the defendant,” the respondent contended.

Remember that on Wednesday, a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice John Okoro temporarily halted the federal government from implementing the scheduled ban on old Naira Notes in denominations of 200, 500, and 1,000 from February 10, 2023.

The order was issued during a ruling in an ex parte application filed by Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states against the Federation’s Attorneys-General.

They had asked the court to issue an interim injunction against the government pending the outcome of their suit challenging the CBN’s naira redesign policy.

They argued, among other things, that the policy has put the country in a precarious position, and that unless the Supreme Court intervenes quickly, the country will descend into anarchy.

According to them, there has been an acute shortage of new naira notes in their states since the policy’s announcement, making it very difficult and nearly impossible for citizens to access the new notes.

While they claimed that the federal government’s notice period was insufficient, they also claimed that the CBN did not follow the policy’s implementation procedure.

The Supreme Court granted the interim order and restrained the federal government from banning the old naira notes pending the outcome of the suit in a brief ruling.

The Supreme Court later scheduled a hearing for February 15, 2023.