JUST IN: Buhari Meets Emefiele Following the Supreme Court’s Intermission

After the Supreme Court postponed the case brought by state governments to challenge the apex bank’s naira redesign policy until February 22, President Muhammadu Buhari met with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

The CBN governor was certainly anticipated to visit the President, and according to Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, the two met today following the Federal Executive Council meeting.

After the Nigeria Governors’ Forum encouraged him to allow all old notes to circulate in the system to lessen suffering on regular Nigerians, the President had made a plea to Nigerians 11 days prior asking them to give him seven days to fix the cash issue.

The president’s spokesman stated that he is unable to confirm or refute rumors that the president may be considering extending the expiration date of the old naira notes by 60 days.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court declared that its February 8 ruling prohibiting the Federal Government and its agencies from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the use of old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes remains in effect.
This explanation was required in response to a complaint made by Mr. Abdulhakeem Mustapha, the counsel for the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, that the Federal Government and its agencies had disobeyed the order and had purportedly ordered the rejection of the old notes.

Mustapha said the plaintiff sought that the court take action against the respondent to preserve the integrity of the court in a notice of non-compliance with the court’s order issued on February 8.

Mustapha was instructed by the seven-member panel, which was presided over by Justice John Okoro, to submit a thorough application so that he could present his complaints and give the respondent time to react properly.

The court’s order didn’t need to be renewed, according to Justice Okoro.
He pointed out that the order from the court on February 8 still stands since the petition for injunctions filed by the plaintiff has not yet been considered. This is because the order was made pending the outcome of the motion, he said.

The Supreme Court additionally set February 22 for the hearing of the lawsuit brought by the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara contesting the legality of the Federal Government’s naira swap scheme.

The Attorneys General of Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti, and Sokoto states were added as co-plaintiffs in the earlier lawsuit brought by Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states, and the court set the date as a result.