Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that only the old N200 banknote remains legal tender while the old N500 and N1,000 notes are not as a contempt of court.<\/p>\n
According to the lawyer-activist, the president cannot overrule the Nigerian Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that 10 state governors \u2014 Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara, Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Sokoto \u2014have dragged the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which introduced new N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes and directed the old notes ceased to be legal tender from February 10, 2023.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court postponed the case until February 22, 2023 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Buhari announced in a nationwide address on Thursday morning that the old N200 note is still legal tender until April 10, but the old N500 and N1,000 notes are no longer.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued Thursday morning, Adegoruwa chastised the president for violating the principle of separation of powers.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThere is separation of powers in a democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder section 235 of the 1999 Constitution, the Supreme Court is the final authority in legal pronouncements in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder section 287(1) of the Constitution, the President is statutorily obliged to obey, enforce and give effect to the decision of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cSection 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution:<\/p>\n
\u201c(1) The decisions of the Supreme court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adegoruwa added that the president\u2019s broadcast is \u201csad for our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cSince he already admitted that the matter is subjudice, the President should not have proceeded to vary the order of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president and indeed the executive should not give the impression that citizens can brazenly disregard lawful orders of any court, as that will only encourage anarchy and lawlessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt amounts to executive rascality and brazen disregard and contempt of the Supreme Court, for the President to separate the denomination of the old notes for legality. It is not open to the President to choose which portion of the order of the Supreme Court that will be obeyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President should reverse his directive and add the N500 and N1000 old notes, failing which the Supreme Court should overrule the directive of the President in on February 22 when the case comes up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that only the old N200 banknote remains legal tender while the old N500 and N1,000 notes are not as a contempt of court. According to the lawyer-activist, the president cannot overrule the Nigerian Supreme Court. WITHIN NIGERIA reports that 10 state governors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":249340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"https:\/\/punchng.com\/buharis-broadcast-contempt-of-court-adegboruwa\/","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"custom","single_blog_custom":"211693","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"single-left","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"floatbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18164,57406,57407,679],"class_list":["post-249334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-adegboruwa","tag-buharis-broadcast","tag-contempt-of-court","tag-president-buhari"],"yoast_head":"\n