The leadership of the North-west All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to take responsibility and resign their appointments for allegedly misled President Muhammadu Buhari into controversial cashless policy.
In a suit against the federal government by three APC governors, the Supreme Court on Friday legalised the use of N200, N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender till December 2023.
The suit was initiated against the federal government by three governors, including Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara and Yahaya Bello of Kogi state.
In a statement released Friday in Abuja, in reaction to the Supreme Court judgement on the cashless policy, APC’s National Vice Chairman North-west, Malam Salihu Moh Lukman, said: “it is unfortunate that President Muhammadu Buhari could be misled into such acts of illegality and abuse of executive powers as pronounced by the Supreme Court.
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“We, and indeed all Nigerians, are grateful to the Supreme Court Justices led by Justice Akomaye for this landmark judicial intervention. Given the injurious nature of the consequences of the cashless policy of the Federal Government as was implemented thus far, and the damage of the Supreme Court ruling to the profile of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami must take personal responsibility for this act of illegality by the Federal Government. In advanced democracies, public offices who commit such acts of illegality voluntarily resign from their appointments.
“Therefore, if indeed, the cashless policy of the Federal Government was supposedly designed to conform with extant legal provisions of the Nigerian Federation, now that it turned out in the direct opposite, both the CBN Governor, Mr. Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Malami should accept the limitations of both their knowledge of the law and commitment to democracy by resigning from their respective offices forthwith. Rule of law is fundamental to democracy and individuals who flagrantly violate the laws or promote acts that breach the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must not be tolerated.
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“We call on Nigerians to take note of the fact that the crusade against the Federal Government cashless policy was led by APC, not minding the attempt to sensationally politicise it to the benefit of opposition political parties and their candidates in this election season. It is gratifying that Nigerians resisted the antics of subversive politicians who wanted to use such crude methods, including inflicting untold hardship and pains on Nigerians to provoke citizens into voting against the APC during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
“We commend and salute Nigerians for their faith in our party, APC and determination to support our party and our candidates during the 2023 elections. We are indeed confident that Nigerians across all the 36 states of the Federation will reaffirm this confidence during the Governorship and States’ Houses of Assembly election on Saturday, March 11, 2023.”