Refuse Old Notes And Risk Shut Down – Gov Dapo Abiodun To Banks

Commercial banks in Ogun State have been warned against refusing old naira notes which the Supreme Court has declared legal tender.

Naija News reports that the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun took to the micro-blogging platform, Twitter, to warn commercial banks against refusing the old N200, N500 and N1000 bank notes.

The governor said any commercial bank that is caught refusing old banknotes would risk being shut down by the state government.

His reaction follows the adjournment of the case on the naira swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) till Wednesday, February 22, by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

The court joined Katsina, Lagos, Cross Rivers, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Sokoto States as co-plaintiffs in the suit challenging the Naira Redesign policy of the Federal Government.

The various state governments had, through their attorneys general, applied to be joined in the suit.

The states urged the Supreme Court to compel President Muhammadu Buhari, the CBN, and commercial banks to rescind the February 10 deadline for the old N200, N500, and ₦1,000 banknotes as Nigeria’s legal tender

In a last week Wednesday ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the Federal Government to halt the implementation of the currency redesign policy pending the determination of the substantive suit.

It was gathered that the apex court, in a unanimous ruling, restrained the Federal Government, CBN, and commercial banks from implementing the deadline for the old 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes to stop being legal tender.

The Ogun State governor, however, insisted that any bank caught not taking the old naira notes would be shut down in the state.

He wrote “We will shut down any Commercial bank operating in Ogun state that refuses to accept old naira notes.”