In August 2019, Omoyele Sowore, a candidate in the just concluded presidential election and publisher of SaharaReporters, an online news platform, was arrested by the Department of State Services in Lagos and transferred to Abuja. The Buhari regime has a history of disobedience of court orders. The court ordered that the old and the new notes should be in circulation together pending further hearings in the suit.īut Buhari in a broadcast on 16 February ordered that only the old N200 note should be re-circulated and insisted that the old N500 and N1,000 banknotes had ceased to be valid. The Supreme Court had on February 8 granted an interim order suspending the implementation of the policy and put on hold the February 10 deadline for the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes to cease being legal tender. “Therefore, the directive is invalid and the implementation invalid.” “In light of the above, I hold that no reasonable notice was given to the public in line with Section 20 of CBN Act, 2007 before the President gave the directive of the redesign of new naira and the withdrawal of old notes. Justice Agim said, “I hold that this court has jurisdiction to determine all the suits. The court held that the CBN did not have to be joined as a party in the suit as it had no powers to carry out the policy without the directive of the President and that the suit was not an action against the banks or the CBN. The apex court further held that Buhari in his broadcast admitted that the policy was flawed with a lot of challenges. It held that the unconstitutional use of powers by Buhari on the naira re-designing breached the fundamental rights of the citizens in various ways, adding that such use of powers by the President was not permitted under democracy and was an affront to the constitution.Īmong others, the Supreme Court held that unlawful use of executive powers by the President inflicted unprecedented economic hardship on the citizens.Įarlier on, the court examined the defendants’ argument that it lacked jurisdiction to decide on the case.ĭismissing the argument that the CBN was the proper party to be sued, the court stated that it was not the action of the CBN that was being challenged, but the validity of the decision of the President to redesign the naira, release the new notes into circulation and withdraw the old notes without consultation with Nigerians through the Council of States and the National Economic Council.Ĭiting Section 23(2)1 of the Constitution, the court held that the dispute between the Federal Government and states must involve law or facts. The apex court maintained that Buhari usurped the powers of the CBN when he issued the directive banning the old naira notes from Februand by doing so made the action ultra vires. Justice Agim held that the President failed to consult the National Council of States, the Federal Executive Council and the National Economic Council before directing the CBN to introduce new naira notes. The defendants had earlier questioned the jurisdiction of the court and argued that the proper party in the suit was the Central Bank of Nigeria and not the President or the federation. Rivers and Abia states had filed separate suits that were consolidated with the main one.Įdo and Bayelsa had joined the side of the Federal Government to oppose the suit. Later, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Jigawa, Rivers and Abia states joined the suit. ![]() Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara were the first to sue the Federal Government over the naira redesign policy and were joined on February 15 by Cross River, Sokoto, Lagos, Ogun, Katsina, Ondo and Ekiti states. The court also dismissed the preliminary objections by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as well as those of Bayelsa and Edo states, and stated that it had jurisdiction to entertain the suit. The disobedience of orders of courts by the President in a constitutional democracy as ours is a sign of the failure of the constitution and that democratic governance has become a mere pretension and is now replaced by autocracy or dictatorship.” “The rule of law upon which our democratic governance is founded becomes illusory if the President of the country or any authority or person refuses to obey the orders of courts. I agree with the 9th plaintiff that the 1st defendant is not entitled to be heard by this court when it has effused to respect the authority of this court and the authority of law from which the authority of the President and the government of Nigeria derives. Interestingly, there is nothing to show the implementation of even that directive. ![]() In disobedience of the order, he directed that only the old N200 naira notes be re-circulated. “The President’s 16-2-2023 national broadcast reproduced here in pages 27-31 demonstrates this disobedience.
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