THIS DAY
The old N200, N500 and N1000 have lost their legitimacy in the eyes of the public such that even courts are rejecting them.
Specifically, lawyers and litigants were yesterday prevented from filing court processes at the Lagos High Courts, as officials insisted they would only accept new naira notes.
Consequently, many lawyers and litigants were turned back by court officials at the registry, saying the banks no longer accept the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender.
The currency rejections happened as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Mike Obadan, yesterday, alleged that the naira redesign policy was becoming chaotic due to resistance from some powerful Nigerians opposing it for personal interests.
At the Lagos High Court, some accounts officers at the registry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told THISDAY that their attempts to deposit old notes they had earlier collected into the government account were rejected by Polaris Bank. He advised lawyers who did not have new naira notes to take advantage of e-Filing, which he said could be done from the comfort of their chambers, homes or anywhere.
The officials further said the only currency acceptable for filing of court processes in the Lagos Judiciary Registry was the new naira notes recently introduced by the CBN.
A lawyer at the Lagos High Court, who did not want his name mentioned, said he was at the court registry at Osborne Division, Ikoyi, to file processes, but was turned back because he had only old naira notes.
The Supreme Court had in a ruling on February 8 suspended the CBN’s February 10 deadline to stop the use of old currency notes. The bank had ordered citizens to swap out old N1, 000, N500, and N200 banknotes for a redesigned currency by the deadline. But the apex court, ruling in an ex parte application by three states – Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna – stopped the CBN from banning the old notes pending the hearing and determination of the case. It fixed February 15 for hearing. The move to ban the old banknotes had caused confusion among bank customers…
