On Monday, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court issued an injunction preventing President Muhammadu Buhari, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the CBN Governor, and 27 commercial banks from suspending, stopping, extending, or otherwise interfering with the February 10 currency swap terminal date or issuing any instructions that would be in violation of the injunction.
The court presided over by Justice Enenche granted a motion filed by five political parties, including Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and National Rescue Movement (NRM), ordering the CEOs of the 27 commercial banks and their alter egos to provide justification for their immunity from arrest and prosecution for the financial and economic crisis by unlawfully hoarding, withholding, failing to pay or disburse the new N200, N500, and N1000 banknotes despite the CBN’s provision of such notes.
However, it has been observed that this court ruling has rendered ineffective all covert efforts, particularly those made by the governors of several States, to persuade the president to reverse the Naira swap program or at the very least to prolong its deadline.A number of governors, including those of Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara, Ondo, Rivers, Imo, Benue, and Kano States, are suspected of being behind the efforts to halt this strategy.
The decision also ties the hands of bank CEOs and their employees who are allegedly stockpiling the new banknotes and trading with them, putting the lives of regular people in great suffering.
Following the order, a variety of legal professionals, civil society organizations, and ethnic youth organizations have praised the most recent court decision, claiming it is best for the nation and will give all parties involved the chance to focus on how to lessen the hardship caused by the policy.The FCT High Court order has been praised by organizations including the Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, Ohanaeze Youth Movement, and Oduduwa Youth Assembly.
While Ohanaeze Youths insisted that vote buyers and election riggers have been demoted, Arewa Youths asserted that looters of the commonwealth of the people have lost out, and Oduduwa Youth held that kickbacks will be extremely difficult going forward, corruption will be greatly reduced, and the likelihood of money laundering has decreased.
The African Centre for Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR), a continental civil society organization, added that the court’s order was the first step in sanitizing the nation’s financial market and would help with the holding of extremely credible elections because politicians would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to access money to tamper with the 2023 elections.They established a case in their 27 reasons for applying that politicians who purportedly have access to illegal cash are the ones calling for the policies to be halted.
 High Court issued an injunction preventing President Muhammadu.....){kind=link}