Headlines

The National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the All Progressives Congress APC, Mallam Salihu Lukman, on Friday called for the resignation of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami for misleading the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari to flout the Supreme Court order on the new naira redesign policy.

The development comes hours after the apex court invalidated the CBN policy on the grounds that it was implemented without due consultation, adding that it was also not in line with constitutional provisions.

Consequently, the Supreme Court ruled that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes should co-exists with the new ones until December 31.

Reacting to the news, Lukman lamented that the sudden implementation of the cash swap policy and tight deadline had brought untold hardship to Nigerians.

The Kaduna politician, therefore, noted that the right thing for public office holders like Emefiele and Malami to do after such public office abuse was to accept their limitations and resign honourably.

In a statement titled “Cashless Policy: Supreme Court Invalidates Actions of the Federal Government”, Lukman expressed delight in the ruling of the Court declaring the FG’s cashless policy as unconstitutional and an utter violation of the fundamental rights.

He said, “It is also unfortunate that President Muhammadu Buhari could be misled into such acts of illegality and abuse of executive powers as pronounced by the Supreme Court. 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 Buhari, Godwin Emefiele and Abubakar Malami must take personal responsibility for this act of illegality by the Federal Government. In advanced democracies, public officers 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.”
The APC vice chair also saluted the resilience of Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) for challenging the Federal Government on behalf of the masses.

He noted that they have shown true heroics through their action alleviating the sufferings of the people.

“On behalf of our party leaders and members from North-West, we salute our three Governors, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Bello Matawalle, respectively of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states for their courage and initiative to challenge the action of the Federal Government in the Supreme Court. It is a patriotic duty to challenge the policy of government, which unfortunately plunge Nigerians into hardship and unimaginable shock, notwithstanding partisan affiliations.

“By doing so, our leaders in APC led by Mallam Nasir, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Matawalle has once again demonstrated superior commitment to democracy. 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,” he stated.

The candidate of Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, on Friday, secured leave of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to have access to all the sensitive materials the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, deployed for the conduct of the presidential election held on February 25.

The appellate court, which will sit as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, equally ordered the electoral body to also grant the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar access to the election materials.

A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the orders after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.

Cited as respondents in the matter were INEC, the acclaimed winner of the presidential election, Bola Tinubu, as well as his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Both applications were predicated on Section146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

While Obi, in his application that was moved by his team of lawyers led by Mr Alex Ejesieme(SAN), sought six principal reliefs, Atiku’s lawyer, Mr Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.

Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents in its custody that were used for the presidential election.

They maintained that the requested documents would aid their petition against the outcome of the presidential contest that was declared in favour of the candidate of the APC, Tinubu.

It will be recalled that INEC had declared Tinubu of the APC as the winner of the presidential poll, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.

According to INEC, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes and Obi of the LP, who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.

Both PDP and LP had since rejected the outcome of the election and vowed to challenge it in court.

The Supreme Court has ordered the usage of the old naira notes alongside the new ones, berating the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria for punishing Nigerians with naira scarcity.

The court also invalidated the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria and federal government, faulting them for disobeying its interim orders on usage of old notes.

Recall that the apex court had earlier granted an exparte motion filed by the governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states seeking “an interim Injunction restraining the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the commercial banks from suspending or determining or ending on February 10, 2023, the time frame with which the now older version of the 200, 500 and 1,000 denomination of the naira may no longer be legal tender pending the hearing and determination of their motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction”.

But the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN, through his counsel, Kanu Agabi SAN, had filed a preliminary objection against the suit, urging the apex court to dismiss the application because the court of first instance is the Federal High Court.

The AGF also contended that the appropriate agency to be sued is the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The plaintiffs later told the court in their processes that the representative of the federal government should be charged for contempt because they allegedly did not comply with the interim directive that the old currencies should continue to be legal tender.

Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Sokoto states were joined as co-plaintiffs in the case while Bayelsa and Edo states later joined the AGF as respondents.

For Rivers and Kano states, they filed separate suits before the apex court saying they are challenging the withdrawal limits imposed by the CBN.

But at the resumed date of hearing on February 23, the first and second plaintiff’s (Kaduna and Kogi states) counsel, Abdulakim Mustapha SAN, urged the court to dismiss the preliminary objection of the reapondents.

The initial plaintiffs thereby urged the apex court to hold that in the interest of justice, the president or the CBN cannot usurp the powers of the state governments, by unilaterally stopping the usage of old naira notes without consulting with the National Economic Council and Federal Executive Council.

On Friday, the seven man panel of the court led by Justice John Okoro (in a verdict prepared by Justice E. Agim), said the CBN and FG cannot make sure policy without consulting with states.

The court held that although the CBN further reviewed cash withdrawal limit for N500,000 and 5 million for individuals and businesses; by 15th February, 2023, the new naira notes were not sufficiently available to Nigerians.

The panel held the CBN did not state the amount of new naira notes it disbursed, adding it is not in dispute that bank institutions did not have new notes to pay customers based on CBN’s cash withdrawal limit of N500,000.

“The policy of the federal government punished Nigerians and grounded economic activities nationwide,” the court held.

It observed that customers stood for hours in bank but could not get the money they needed.

On jurisdiction, the apex court held the naira swap case falls within its purview and judicial powers.

“The directive of the president is in exercise of the executive powers of the federation vested on him and the federal government and its agencies represents all the constituent state of the federation.

In an apparent retaliatory move Deltans have vowed to vote out PDP leadership at all levels in Delta State.

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa who his kinsmen refer to as the ‘Judas of the South’ incurred the wrath of Deltans through his incessant loans, non payment of pensions and mismanagement of hundreds of billions of naira that accrued to the state under his watch.

Furthermore, Okowa is said to be running a sectional government that only favour his kinsmen and selected associates.

Despite huge sums of money that accrued to the state, Okowa embarked on untamed borrowing. The loans are believed to have been squandered in his political quest. Governor Okowa was the running mate to Alh Atiku Abubakar and most of the party’s funding is believed to have come from Delta State.

The presidential flagbearer of the People’s Democratic Party PDP in the just concluded presidential election, Alh Atiku Abubakar has shot his doors against Tinubu’s pro-peace delegation led by former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC Alh Nuhu Ribadu. LeadingReporters has been authoritatively informed.

Others in the delegation believed to have sent by Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to plead with Atiku to accept out of court options included Governors Abdullahi Ganduje, of Kano, Atiku Bagudu, of Kebbi, Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa.

Atiku who has concluded plans to head to the Court, told the visitors that he was not ready to see them.

The visit was apparently part of the moves being made by the Bola Tinubu to reach out to all those who had contested with him during the last Saturday’s Presidential elections adjudged by many as the most fraudulent elections in the history of Nigeria.

The former Vice President had met with party leaders to explore options to reclaim the stolen elections. Part of the agreement reached was to seek redress at the court where evidence would be rendered to show how the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, rigged the Presidential elections in favor of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party has declared that he actually won the 2023 presidential election.

According to him, he was robbed of his mandate which he can only retrieve in a court of law.

Obi said this during his first media briefing since after Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

He said, “We’ll explore all legal options to retrieve our mandate. We won the election. I’m fully committed to a better future for the country and nothing can stop that.

“For the election on Saturday go out there and vote. I’ll be part of it, I assure you”.