Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice said the federal government will obey the supreme court’s ex parte order to halt the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s deadline for old notes.
The country’s apex court had ruled that CBN temporarily suspended its deadline for high denomination naira notes that were redesigned last year. Three states — Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara — under the control of All Progressives Congress (APC) had approached the supreme court to stop CBN from implementing the deadline earlier slated for February 10.
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Malami had reportedly filed an objection against the ruling, insisting that the supreme court has no jurisdiction over the case. During an interview with AriseTV on Thursday, Malami noted that the government is hoping that the ex parte decision, which is set to expire on February 15, 2023, will be overturned.
He noted that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case in the first place and that the CBN, a key player in the dispute, was not named as a defendant.
On the other hand, Malami stated that the government will bow to the court’s ruling. This, according to him, was motivated by respect for the rule of law.
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“The order was granted by the Supreme Court and the order incidentally lapses on Wednesday, which is the day of the hearing, with that position in mind we have taken steps to file an objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter. Jurisdiction because when you talk of monetary policy, regardless of the characters they take, the Central Bank is an indispensable and necessary party for that matter,” he said.
He added: “What we have at hand is a situation where the central bank was not joined as a party and if the central bank as an institution was not joined as a party, the position of the law is clear that the original jurisdiction of the supreme court cannot be properly invoked. So we have given considerations to diverse issues, inclusive of the issue of jurisdiction, and come Wednesday we will argue the case from that perspective, among others.”
