The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that it did not issue any fresh directive to commercial banks on last Friday’s judgement of the Supreme Court ordering the circulation of the old naira notes alongside the new ones until December 31.
The CBN spokesman, Isa Abdulmumin, who spoke to Daily Trust, said the CBN had not issued an official statement.
However, a senior management source said, “Both the old and new notes are legal tender, and banks are currently issuing them to customers. Nigerians should not reject any note, whether old or new.”
AuthenticReporters had on Monday reported that commercial banks began dispensing the old N500 and N1000 Naira notes.
A resident of Ilorin, Kwara State had confirmed to AuthenticReporters that the ATM machines of Guaranty Trust Bank at Umar Audu Road, Opposite University Road Junction, Tanke, GRA, 10, Ilorin paid him some old N1,000 notes.
A banker who also spoke to AuthenticReporters corroborated this.
He said some banks had started dispensing the old notes but his bank had not got the go-ahead yet because of uncertainty surrounding the validity of the notes as legal tenders in the country.
Recall that the Nigerian Supreme Court had ordered that the old N500 and N1000 notes phased out by the Federal Government be kept in circulation until December.
But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has yet to react to the apex court’s decision on the policy which has subjected Nigerians to hardships in recent weeks.
A seven-member panel of justices presided over by Justice Inyang Okoro ruled unanimously that President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to redesign and withdraw old notes of N200, N500, and N1,000 without consulting the states, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the National Council of State, and other stakeholders was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court observed that no reasonable notice was provided prior to the implementation of the policy, as required by the CBN Act.
