Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has berated the Federal Government for disobeying the Supreme Court order on the usage of the old naira notes.
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the old N500 and N1,000 remain legal tender until December, months after the Federal Government embarked on a currency redesign policy.
Although the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) insisted there is no going back on the deadline for the usage of the old notes, the presidency on Monday said the apex bank had no reason to disobey the order.
While wading into the matter, Falana said the Federal Government has not instructed banks to begin the issuance and collection of the old banknotes.
“The Central Bank has not been asked to make a statement allowing banks to comply with the judgement of the Supreme Court. Again, as I said before now, this can only happen in a banana republic. You cannot dance around the judgement of the Supreme Court otherwise, you are saying you don’t want the rule of law to operate in your country,” he said while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
It is very sad. I do hope that this outgoing government would comply with the judgement in totality.”
He claims that President Muhammad Buhari-led Federal Government has a record of disobeying court orders, citing several instances.
“So, we have such cases very many,” Falana maintained, adding that the Supreme Court order admitted that “this government has a history of disobeying court orders”.
Falana, who also spoke about the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections, said the exercise showed power belongs to the people.
“There are some positive developments that were recorded. For instance, the myth of these political structures has been destroyed whereby people have shown that we are the structure, and the people are the structure ultimately,” he said.
