The Kano State Attorney General, and Commissioner for Justice, Musa Abdullahi Lawan says he filed a suit at Supreme Court on behalf of Kano citizens to challenge the procedure the Federal Government adopted in currency redesign as part of its cashless economic policy.
He made the disclosure at press briefing while shedding more lights on the case, the state government filed.
Read Also: BREAKING: Naira Redesign Policy: KNSG Files Suit Against FGN
“We looked at the case filed by Kaduna State Government and two other States and gathered that it is good to also instituted our case to cover all the angles.
Basically what our case is saying is that, the Federal Government didn’t take Federal Executive Council and National Economic Council into consideration, before directing the Central Bank of Nigeria to implement its currency redesign and cash withdrawal limits, which contravened the provisions of Constituiton of Federal Republic Nigeria, 1999 as amended.” The Attorney General said.
He further said, the position of law is that, before taking any step, in currency redesign procedure, Federal Government has to bring the issue to the Federal Executive Council and National Economic Council for inputs, and according to him this will give Governors and key relevant stakeholders opportunity to be part of the decision making and contributions.
He further maintained that if the issue of currency redesign policy tabled at Federal Executive Council and National Economic Council, every Governor will bring his peculiar problem of his state.
“For example, Kano is the most populous state and Commercial nerve centre, where a lot of cash are being circulated, due to the nature of their various businesses,”
“We are not saying the policy is not good, its fantastic, but you have to implement it in such a way economic will not be destroyed,”
The Commissioner lamented that the Banks are not ready to supply their customers with the new naira note, which led to the suffering of Kano Citizens.
“Central Bank has confirmed to Nigerians that so far, N2.7 trillion old naira note has been deposited, while only N3billion new Naira has been printed, only 1 percent of what was deposited. How can that satisfy Nigerians,”
Musa Lawan explained that what Kano State Government is praying from Supreme Court is to order Central Bank to be accepting old note, pending when they will print enough new note.
“We are also praying the Supreme Court to order Banks to issue old note to customer when they present cheque,” he further explained.
He emphasized that even if the Supreme Court extended the deadline of old naira notes, he stressed that the new naira note will not be enough.
Read Also: Supreme Court suspends CBN deadline on old, new naira notes swap
He advised that Bank has to use the old naira note to augment the shortage of the old naira note.
