Naira Scarcity: Emefiele, AGF To Be Slammed With Contempt Proceedings

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, may be slammed with contempt proceedings over their refusal to implement the Supreme Court verdict on the old naira notes validity.

According to reports, the federal government was served with the enrolled order and Certified True Copy of last week’s Supreme Court judgement on Friday.

It was gathered that non-service of the above is the reason why Emefiele has not been directed by the federal government to distribute the old notes already out of circulation.

President Muhammdu Buhari's silence on the apex court's verdict has fuelled the rejection of the old N1,000 and N500 as legal tender.

It was observed on Wednesday that some banks that had been paying customers with the old notes in partial compliance with the Supreme Court order stopped disbursing them after CBN stated that it had not issued any directive for them to do so.

Speaking with Punch, the Counsel for Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states, which took the federal government to the Supreme Court over the issue, Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), stated that immediate compliance is expected now that Emefiele and the Buhari-led administration had been served.

“The Attorney-General of the Federation has been served now and we will take it up from there; if there is no compliance now, we will commence committal proceedings against the attorney-general and the CBN governor.

“When the Supreme Court talks, the constitution makes it compulsory for all government representatives and everybody to comply with its order.

“It’s not discretional, you have to obey, it is the last and the final and that is why we have separation of power.

“The presence of separation of power is for checks and balances; when the Supreme Court talks, it must be complied with by all persons.”