Taiwo Amodu, Abuja
National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, has called for the resignation of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
Lukman was reacting to the Supreme Court judgment on the suit instituted by some governors to challenge the controversial Naira Swap Policy.
The apex bank on Friday has ordered that the old N1000, N200 and N500 notes should remain legal tender until December 31, 2023.
The court held that the old naira notes should co-exist with the new notes.
It faulted the directive issued by President Muhammadu Buhari to the CBN governor to limit access to cash and held that it was a violation of the right of the owners of such funds to their property.
It proceeded to set aside the cash limit directive given to banks by the CBN.
The immediate past Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum who incidentally is a member of the APC National Working Committee said both the AGF and the Governor of the CBN misled President Muhammadu Buhari to give his support to an illegal policy.
“Given the injurious nature of the consequences of the cashless policy of the Federal Government as was implemented thus far, and the damage of the Supreme Court ruling to the profile of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami must take personal responsibility for this act of illegality by the Federal Government. In advanced democracies, public offices who commits such acts of illegality voluntarily resigns from their appointments.”
Lukman further commended ” Governors, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Bello Matawalle, respectively of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states for their courage and initiative to challenge the action of the Federal Government in the Supreme Court.”
The statement read in part:” Leaders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from North-West received with delight the ruling of the Supreme Court declaring the Federal Government’s cashless policy as unconstitutional and violation of the fundamental rights of Nigerians as provided under the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended. By this ruling of the Supreme Court as delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye, the old N1,000, N500 and N200 remain legal tender and Nigerians are free to have access to all their monies deposited in Nigerian banks without any form of restrictions as contained in the Federal Government cashless policy.
“On behalf of our party leaders and members from North-West, we salute our three Governors, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Bello Matawalle, respectively of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states for their courage and initiative to challenge the action of the Federal Government in the Supreme Court. It is a patriotic duty to challenge the policy of government, which unfortunately plunge Nigerians into hardship and unimaginable shock, notwithstanding partisan affiliations. By so doing, our leaders in APC led by Mallam Nasir, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Matawalle have once again demonstrated superior commitment to democracy.
“It is also unfortunate that President Muhammadu Buhari could be misled into such acts of illegality and abuse of executive powers as pronounced by the Supreme Court. We, and indeed all Nigerians, are grateful to the Supreme Court Justices led by Justice Akomaye for this landmark judicial intervention. Given the injurious nature of the consequences of the cashless policy of the Federal Government as was implemented thus far, and the damage of the Supreme Court ruling to the profile of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami must take personal responsibility for this act of illegality by the Federal Government. In advanced democracies, public offices who commits such acts of illegality voluntarily resigns from their appointments.
“Therefore, if indeed, the cashless policy of the Federal Government was supposedly designed to conform with extant legal provisions of the Nigerian Federation, now that it turned out in the direct opposite, both the CBN Governor, Mr. Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Malami should accept the limitations of both their knowledge of the law and commitment to democracy by resigning from their respective offices forthwith. Rule of law is fundamental to democracy and individuals who flagrantly violate the laws or promote acts that breach the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must not be tolerated.
“We call on Nigerians to take note of the fact that the crusade against the Federal Government cashless policy was led by APC, not minding the attempt to sensationally politicise it to the benefit of opposition political parties and their candidates in this election season. It is gratifying that Nigerians resisted the antics of subversive politicians who wanted to use such crude methods, including inflicting untold hardship and pains on Nigerians to provoke citizens into voting against the APC during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections. We commend and salute Nigerians for their faith in our party, APC and determination to support our party and our candidates during the 2023 elections. We are indeed confident that Nigerians across all the 36 states of the Federation will reaffirm this confidence during the Governorship and States’ Houses of Assembly election on Saturday, March 11, 2023.”
