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The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were joined in the suit as Defendants.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari over “the unlawful directive banning the use of old N500 and N1,000 banknotes, contrary to the interim injunction granted by the Supreme Court that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes remain legal tender.”
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were joined in the suit as Defendants.
Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP Deputy Director made this known in a statement issued on Sunday, noting that the suit was filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, and Kolawole Oluwadare.
In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/233/2023 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP is asking the court to determine “whether President Buhari’s directive banning the N500 and N1,000 banknotes is not inconsistent and incompatible with the constitutional duties to obey decisions of the Supreme Court and oath of office.”
SERAP is asking the court for “a declaration that President Buhari’s directive banning the use of old N500 and N1,000 banknotes is a fundamental breach of section 287(1) of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and his constitutional oath of office, and therefore unconstitutional, unlawful, null and void.”
SERAP is seeking “an order of interim injunction restraining President Buhari, the CBN and Mr Malami, their agents or privies from further enforcing the presidential directive banning the old N500 and N1,000 banknotes, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed contemporaneously in this suit.”
In the suit, SERAP is arguing that: “Upholding the rule of law is the cornerstone of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy. President Buhari and other public officials and authorities have a binding legal responsibility to strictly comply with the rule of law and obey the decisions by the Supreme Court, and all other courts.”
“The directive to ban the use of N500 and N1000 banknotes, contrary to the interim injunction by the Supreme Court, is ultra vires – beyond the constitutional and legitimate powers of President Buhari and the government,” SERAP said.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
A week after the Supreme Court ordered the Nigerian government to allow the continued use of old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, President Muhammadu Buhari countered that order.
In his national broadcast, Buhari announced that the old N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender but extended the deadline for N200 notes to April 10.
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