Naira redesign: Emefiele is being sued for disobeying court orders

Tope Alabi, a lawyer in Lagos, said that the CBN’s early disregard for the Supreme Court’s decision had a negative impact on his career.

Tope Alabi, an activist lawyer based in Lagos, has asked the Federal High Court in Lagos for permission to bring contempt charges against Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for allegedly disobeying the Supreme Court’s rulings over the CBN’s currency redesign strategy.

Alabi filed the request as an ex parte move in the case on March 27, with Emefiele named as the only respondent.

He called the naira swap a “cash confiscation policy” and claimed it had a negative impact on how his office was run on a daily basis because his staff members were unable to bring physical cash to work. He also claimed that commercial drivers “do not have point of sale (POS) device/machine to collect fares.”

The attorney submitted a 28-page affidavit in support of his application, in which he asserted that the Supreme Court “directed Emefiele to make available and allow the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes to co-exist as legal tender with the new N200, N500, and N1000 notes until December 2023” in Suit No. SC. 162/2023.

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When the Supreme Court issued its order on March 10, 2023, ordering the release of the old notes into circulation, the respondent withdrew the N200, N500, and N1000 notes from circulation on February 10, 2023. The respondent has yet to comply with this order.

Alabi said, “It has damaged my career as a legal practitioner as I did not have access to daily physical currency to carry out my business and pay small daily needs.” The CBN is claimed to have first disregarded the Supreme Court Judgment.

That I filed this application to ask for permission to enforce the Supreme Court Order despite not being a party to the Supreme Court’s lawsuit.