Real Reason why Supreme Court Ordered a Pause to the February 10 deadline for Old Notes - Ozekhome
According to Mike Ozekhome, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding the Federal Government's plan to implement the Central Bank of Nigeria's ultimatum on the old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes ceasing to be legal tender in the country, is simply a pause on the implementation.
In a recent appearance on Channels Television, Ozekhome stated that the Supreme Court has not yet decided on the matter but has merely granted an interim order to prevent the subject matter of the suit from being truncated.
"The Supreme Court has not decided the matter. All it has done is to fall back to a decision like Kotoye vs CBN, that in matters of extreme urgency, you can grant an interim order, even if it be an ex-parte, to prevent the subject matter of the suit being truncated," explained Ozekhome.
A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice John Okoro, granted the interim injunction on Wednesday after a motion ex-parte was filed on behalf of three northern states, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, seeking to halt the implementation of the CBN's policy.
Ozekhome further emphasized that any decision made by the Supreme Court would impact not only the three state governments that brought the case against the Federal Government but all states of the federation and their attorney-generals.
"Notwithstanding the fact that a high court or Federal High Court had granted an order telling the CBN, ‘You can stop this naira swap policy on the 10th of February as you have decided to do’, the Supreme Court today said, ‘Hello? Don’t do that! Allow it to continue. Come back on the 15th of February and let us hear you people," Ozekhome added.
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