By Stephen Angbulu

The Nigeria Presidency has said that neither the Federal Government nor the Central Bank of Nigeria had taken a stand on the continued use of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes as legal tenders seeing that the case is still pending before the Supreme Court, which will hear it today (Wednesday).

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the FG would make its position on the new naira policy known after the determination of the suit on Wednesday.

In a response to our correspondent on Tuesday, he said “Following series of enquiries, we wish to state that it is not true that the FG or the CBN has taken a pre-emptive action on the legality of currency as a legal tender in view of the pendency of the case before the Supreme Court.

“We wish to state that it is not true that the Federal Government or the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN have taken a preemptive action on the legality of currency as a legal tender in view of the pendency of the case before the Supreme Court.

“The position of the government and the CBN will be made known upon the determination of the suit coming up tomorrow.”

This comes about one week after the Supreme Court, in a ruling on February 8, suspended the CBN’s February 10 deadline to halt the use of old naira notes.

The bank had ordered citizens to exchange old N200, N500 and N1,000, banknotes for a redesigned version of the same currencies.

However, the Supreme Court, responding to an ex parte application filed by the governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, stopped the CBN from effecting its ban on the old notes pending the hearing and determination of the case on Wednesday, February 15.

*Text, except headline, courtesy of THE PUNCH