Lawyers and litigants were unable to file their court processes using the old naira notes for payment on Monday at the High Courts in Lagos State due to court officials rejecting the notes and stating that banks no longer accept them as legal tender.
It was learned that account officers at the Lagos Island and Ikeja High Court registries insisted that lawyers and litigants pay for new naira notes because banks refused to transfer old naira notes collected from court users to the government account.
An unidentified member of staff claims that their supervisor told them to stop collecting old notes because the old money they took from court users to four different banks—FCMB, Polaris, UBA, and Fidelity—was rejected.
Lawyers and litigants must now bring only the new naira notes, the court official stated.
One of the affected lawyers told PUNCH over the phone that the registry at the Osborne Division of the Lagos High Court rejected the old notes and prevented him from proceeding with his processes. The lawyer did not want his name printed, however.
He lamented the disregard for the Supreme Court’s directive to keep the old naira notes in circulation.
The nation would suffer greatly if old notes were not accepted. Orders issued by the Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court, are routinely disregarded. It is evident that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), particularly CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, is prepared to impose a state of anarchy on Nigeria by ordering banks to act against the Supreme Court’s orders.
On February 8, 2023, the Supreme Court issued an interim order preventing the CBN from enforcing its February 10 deadline for the use of the old naira note.
The court’s seven-member panel, led by John Okoro, issued the interim injunction in the face of a severe shortage of the newly redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 currency notes.
The new notes were introduced by the CBN in December of last year as part of efforts to combat corruption, terrorism, counterfeiting, and related crimes.
However, due to a lack of supply and rising national tension, Nigerians have been unable to obtain the new notes.