The Supreme Court has restrained the Federal Government (FG) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from enforcing the February 10 deadline to phase out the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes.
Three Northern states — Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara — in a motion ex-parte filed on February 3, prayed the apex court to halt the CBN’ Naira redesign policy.
A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice John Okoro, in a unanimous ruling on Wednesday morning in Abuja, granted an interim injunction restraining the Federal government, CBN, commercial banks etc from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes to stop being a legal tender.
The court further held that the FG, CBN, commercial banks must not continue with the deadline pending the determination of a motion on notice in respect of the issue fixed for hearing on February 15.
By this ruling, the listed old Naira notes continue to be legal tender in Nigeria.
* Details later…