THREE DAYS AFTER SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT, NO REACTION YET FROM EMEFIELE
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- We Don’t Know His Whereabouts – Sources
Three days after the Supreme Court judgement that ordered the old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes be returned back into circulation till December 31 2023; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is yet to issue directives to Commercial Banks on compliance to the judgement.
Customers had thronged commercial banks on Monday morning hoping to be able to withdraw cash from their accounts only to be told that the banks have not received any circular from CBN or their own head offices on how to proceed consquent upon the Supreme Court judgement.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered that the old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes be returned back into circulation till December 31 2023.
The apex court also nullified the Federal Government’s naira redesign policy, declaring it as an affront to the 1999 Constitution.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgement, held that the preliminary objections by the defendants (the Attorney General of the Federation, Bayelsa and Edo states) are dismissed as the court has the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
According to the court, the policy has led to some people engaging in trade by barter in this modern age in a bid to survive. The court added that the President’s disobedience of the February 8 order, is a sign of dictatorship.
Citing Section 23(2)1 of the constitution, the court held that the dispute between the Federal Government and states must involve law or facts.
Sixteen states of the Federation instituted the suit to challenge the legality or otherwise of the introduction of the policy.
The suit initially instituted by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states has been slated as the first case on the cause list for final verdict.
However, sources say CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele; is nowhere to be found.
“We have not heard from him or seen him in the past few days”; the source said.
This is not the first time that the whereabouts of Emefiele will be shrouded in mystery.
The Department of State Services had, in December 2022, filed a suit at the Federal High Court Abuja for authorisation to arrest him over wild allegations of terrorism financing and economic crimes. These were frightening charges, especially because the accused had had the ears of the president and had, thus, seemed to have enjoyed immunity to perceived witch-hunt.
In rejecting the application, the court pointed out that the DSS, in a clever move, failed to disclose Emefiele’s status or office in the application or the affidavit, compelling them to speculate whether it’s the CBN governor or a namesake, and then noted what’s in the mind of every Nigerian bystander: “an application of this kind should have evidence of the approval of the respondent’s boss, that such measures are authorised to be taken”.
In an earlier report by Daily Trust Newspaper, it opined that “the president’s authorisation wasn’t sought suggested that the DSS were after an interest other than that of the president, and whether theirs is the best for the nation is yet to be established. The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court Abuja, Justice John Tsoho, could see through the charade, that the court was being tricked into enabling and legitimising chaos. With or without a court order, the presiding judge said in his December 9, 2022 ruling, the DSS had the power to arrest Mr Emefiele if they had reasonable suspicion to do so, and that their resolve to seek the court’s arrest warrant to serve as a cover for an unusual and ambiguous procedure must be for lack of concrete evidence. ”
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