Posted by Residents of Kaduna have been urged to disregard President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that N500 and N1000 notes are no longer legal tenders by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.
El-Rufai insisted that the old notes will be sealed and continue to be accepted by businesses in the state of Kaduna.
Buhari had said in his national broadcast early on Thursday that the old N500 and N1000 were no longer valid. However, he stated that 200 Naira notes can be utilized until April 10.
He had instructed Nigerians to transport them to designated locations and the Central Bank.
However, El-Rufai stated in his Thursday night statewide address that the notes will continue to be legal tender unless the Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise.
El-Rufai declared:
“All old and new notes shall continue to be used as legal tender in Kaduna State until the Supreme Court of Nigeria makes a decision to the contrary,” for the avoidance of doubt.
Therefore, I appeal to all Kaduna State residents to use both the old and new notes concurrently without fear. Any facility that refuses to accept the old notes as legal tender must be sealed and their owners prosecuted by the Kaduna State Government and its agencies.
“We will take additional legal repercussions if necessary.” The President’s speech this morning, in which he restricted the legal tender status of old notes to just N200, is a complete disregard and disobedience of the Supreme Court’s February 8 ruling, which was extended further yesterday.
“By displaying open contempt for the judiciary, the misguided action taken by the Attorney General to mislead the President into engaging in this public violation of the order of the highest court in the land demonstrates how desperate the policy architects are to cause national chaos.
“The President announced this morning that the decision to recognize only N200 as legal tender until April was offered to the state governments as part of proposals for an out-of-court settlement three days ago…”