Three Northern States have petitioned the Supreme Court against the Buhari administration

The governments of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara have filed a case against the Federal Government in the Supreme Court, seeking a restraining order to prevent the full implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) currency redesign program.

The case stems from the chaos and hardship that Nigerians have experienced in their efforts to meet the deadline for the new naira exchange.

The Northern States urged the Supreme Court in an ex-parte motion filed on their behalf by their lawyer, AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha (SAN), to grant them an interim injunction preventing the Nigerian Government, acting alone or through the CBN, commercial banks, or its agents, from carrying out its plan to end the timeframe within which the now-older currencies of 200, 500, and 1000 denominations will cease to be legal tender.

The plaintiffs in the complaint are the Attorneys-General and Commissioners of Justice of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara States, while the lone respondent is the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).

The Plaintiffs claimed that since the announcement of the new naira note policy, there has been a severe shortage of new naira notes in the three states, and that citizens who have dutifully deposited their old naira notes have increasingly found it difficult, if not impossible, to access new naira notes for their daily activities.

They also maintained that the Federal Government’s 10-day extension was insufficient to remedy the policy’s problems.

However, no date has been set for the suit’s hearing.

Remember that the CBN extended its original date for a full changeover to new naira notes.

In a press statement issued last week, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele announced a ten-day extension of the deadline.

According to Emefiele, the new date is now February 10, 2023.