Ahead of the presidential polls on Saturday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has left no stone unturned to ensure the implementation of the Supreme Court order over the controversial naira swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Yesterday, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami was at the national secretariat of the party at the behest of Senator Abdullahi Adamu who heads the national working committee (NWC) of the party.
Malami’s appearance came barely 24 hours after the APC, together with members of the progressive governors’ forum (PGF) called on him and President Muhammadu Buhari to comply with the supreme court’s directive.
Malami who was driven to the party’s national secretariat in Abuja at about 3.30pm accompanied by Governors Ahmed Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) who started the lawsuit challenging the February 15 CBN deadline regarding the use of old N200, N500 and N1000 notes.
Former governor of Zamfara state, Alh Abdulaziz Yari, also attended the closed parliament held between APC chairmen, Malami, el-Rufai, Bagudu and Matawalle.
However, Malami refused to speak to journalists at the end of the meeting at about 4.30pm, because efforts to reach the governor who said above the brick wall because Adamu who saw him only said: “We are on the same page, there is nothing. that’s what needs to be said now.”
The Supreme Court adjourned until February 22, 2023 the suit filed by some governors to challenge the CBN’s naira redesign policy.
The CBN initially set January 31 as the deadline for the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes to return to banks and cease to be legal tender.
But the deadline was extended to February 10, amid widespread anger from Nigerians over the shortage of banknotes.
But before the February 10 deadline could expire, Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara states approached the Supreme Court to stop the CBN from extending the deadline.