Falana Knocks CBN for Flouting Supreme Court Order

By Starrys Obazei | February 13, 2023
starrys@ddnewsonline.com

The fiery rights activist and legal icon in Nigeria, Femi Falana, has given knocks to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for boastfully uttering that it would not obey the Supreme Court order to extend the February 10 deadline for final naira swap.

The Kogi, Kaduna and Nasarawa state governments had obtained Supreme Court order on February 8, which gave hope and direction to millions of hapless Nigerians using available old Naira notes in the face of scarcity of new notes.

The apex court granted an interim injunction restraining the CBN from carrying out the implementation of February 10 deadline.

The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele has, however, disclosed that the old notes have ceased to be legal tender despite the stance of the appeal court.

Speaking in an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, Falana revealed who is behind Emefiele by saying that the Federal Government was not ready to comply with the order.

“In a country where the rule of law operates, once the Supreme Court has determined a matter or given an order, it is expected that all and sundry – everybody – will comply with the order,” he said.

“A statement was credited to the Central Bank that since it was not a party to the case, it’s not going to comply with the order. I thought that could only happen in a banana republic.

“I expected the Central Bank to have issued a statement following the order of the Supreme Court: ‘all actions are stale until the 15th of February.’”

According to him, the law will be invoked to deal with those who are deliberately flouting the orders of the court and sabotaging the rule of law in Nigeria.

“For me, an example has to be made this time around, so that nobody will feel that he’s above the law in our country,” he added.