The All Progressives Congress has explained why it cannot sanction the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, for defying the Supreme Court verdict on naira notes.
The apex court had in a ruling on March 3, ordered for old and new naira notes to co-exist till at least December 31, 2023.
The followed a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government and the CBN by some state governments over the level of untold hardship the naira re-design policy had on the masses.
APC governors, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna; Dr Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara led others to file the suit against Emefiele and President Muhammadu Buhari at the Supreme Court.
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In the last two months, a considerable number of Nigerians have thrown caution to the wind and invaded several banks to register their displeasures in bizarre manners.
The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes should be allowed to co-exist with the new one until December 31.
The court further held that Buhari’s directive on the redesign of the new notes without due consultation was invalid.
However, the CBN failed to obey the verdict, leaving Nigerians in a round of confusion. The silence of the government further doubled the confusion as Nigerians scrambled for naira notes.
However, President Buhari in a statement earlier in the week, denied asking Emefiele to disobey the court order, adding that the apex bank needed no instruction from the government to obey the court.
According to him, the CBN has no reason not to comply with court orders on the excuse of waiting for directives.
In an interview with Punch, the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Felix Morka, said even though Emefiele was a member of the party, on the President can hire or fire him.
He said;
“Emefiele was hired by the president and he serves at the pleasure of the president. So no one person or a group of persons even in the party has the authority to hire and fire the CBN governor. That is the exclusive prerogative of the president.
“The president has its power as constituted by law and under the CBN Act as well. As I earlier said, everything concerning the hiring and firing of the CBN governor rests with the president. The position of the party on that is irrelevant. He makes the decision as he chooses.”
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