Lawyer drags CBN to court, seeks extension of old naira notes deadline

A professor of law, Joshua Alobo, has dragged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, seeking extensions of old naira notes deadline.

He is praying the court to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from making January 31 as the terminal date for old Naira Notes.

The plaintiff, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/114/2023, equally urged the court to issue a mandatory order, “extending the duration where the old notes cease to become legal tender to period of three weeks when the redesign notes will be sufficiently dispense by the commercial banks.”

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Cited as 1st to 3rd Defendants in the matter are the CBN, its governor, Godwin Emefiele and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN.

In a 21-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Musa Damudi, the plaintiff, told the court that the CBN governor had on October 26, 2022, announced that the apex bank would introduce new series of redesigned N200, N500 and N1, 000 banknotes into the financial system.

He admitted that though CBN’s decision is geared towards reducing inflation and entrenching cashless society so as to curb money laundering and corruption, however, majority of Nigerians, especially the less privileged one, are yet to have access to the new Naira notes that were unveiled on November 23, 2022 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

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While accusing the commercial banks of failing to make the new Naira notes available to their customers, the plaintiff told the court that as of January 25, he was still handed the old notes on the counter and through the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM).

He decried that already, major shopping malls within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have announced the rejection of old notes, with the ATM limiting daily withdrawal to N20, 000.00.

The plaintiff argued that the terminal date of January 31 for usage of the old notes “is discriminatory against the rural dwellers, poor and less privileged persons in the society, as politically exposed persons are paid with the redesigned notes.

No date has been fixed for hearing in the matter.