KADUNA- In a direct challenge to the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has asked residents of the state to accept the old N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender.
President Buhari had in a nationwide broadcast on Thursday morning extended the validity of the old N200 notes till April 10.
He also directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to circulate the banknotes.
The president, however, declared that the old N500 and N1,000 notes had ceased to be longer legal tender in the country.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday adjourned the suit filed by Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara and six other states challenging the redesign of the naira notes and implementation of the deadline on the naira swap till February 22.
The apex bank, however, insisted that the old naira notes remain legal tender pending the determination of the suit.
In a statewide broadcast, the governor apologized to the people of the state for the hardship caused by the scarcity of naira notes.
He described the president’s directive as a total disregard of the Supreme Court on the matter.
El-Rufai said: “On behalf of the government of Kaduna state, I wish to express my deepest regret at the needless suffering you are enduring as a result of the prolonged fuel shortage and the difficulties occasioned by the so-called ‘currency redesign’ policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We will also ensure the delivery of your new notes to your various locations without any hardship or expense on your part. We shall save you any panic and the stress of a long journey from your community to the CBN office in our state capital, from March until December 2023 if need be.
“For the avoidance of doubt, all the old and new notes shall remain in use as legal tender in Kaduna State until the Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise.
“It is shocking to see the blatant violation of the subsisting and continuing order of the Supreme Court that all the old and new notes should continue to be legal tender until it gives judgment in the case filed by the Kaduna State Government along with several others.
“The decision by the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to recognise only N200 as legal tender till April 10th which President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Thursday morning was offered to the state governments as part of proposals for an out-of-court settlement three days ago.
“The Federal Government asserted that this was offered because all the ‘old’ N1,000 and N500 notes had been destroyed. We rejected the offer and proved to the officials that not a single higher denomination note had been destroyed.
“We also believe that circulating N200 only to be inadequate in alleviating the suffering that we see every day. We insisted that all the components of the Supreme Court order should be complied with.”
WATCH VIDEO: https://twitter.com/channelstv/status/1626341845146927104?s=46&t=6za13f3nMx6mHQOuZdFLrw
