How we were ‘deceived’ that all old N500, N1,000 notes have been destroyed – El-Rufai

 

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has revealed how the decision by the Federal Government to recognise only N200 as legal tender till April 10th, 2023, was cleverly conveyed to aggrieved state governments as part of proposals for an out-of-court settlement a few days ago.

El-Rufai, in a broadcast to the people of Kaduna State on Thursday evening, said the state governments were told that all old N500 and N1,000 were already destroyed.

“The decision by the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to recognise only N200 as legal tender till April 10th which President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Thursday morning was offered to the state governments as part of proposals for an out-of-court settlement three days ago.

“The Federal Government asserted that this was offered because all the ‘old’ N1,000 and N500 notes had been destroyed. We rejected the offer and proved to the officials that not a single higher denomination note had been destroyed,” the governor said.

El-Rufai, who faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive limiting the legal tender status of old notes to only N200, described it as a total disregard of the Supreme Court on the matter.

He noted that the misguided action of the Attorney-General of the Federation to mislead the President into engaging in such public violation of the order of the highest court of the land shows how desperate the policy architects are to cause national chaos, by showing open contempt for the judiciary.

Governor El-Rufai expressed concern that the peaceful coexistence as a state, and a nation, is being placed under deliberate danger using the intentional combination of fuel and cash supply disruptions.

He accused those in the corridors of power of using the instrumentality of the Federal Government and the President as convenient covers to truncate the nation’s democracy because they have personally lost out.

“It is also quite revealing that the Federal Government and its agencies not only disobeyed the February 8th ruling by continuing to say the February 10th deadline stands,” he said.

“It is shocking to see the blatant violation of the subsisting and continuing order of the Supreme Court that all the old and new notes should continue to be legal tender until it gives judgment in the case filed by the Kaduna State Government along with several others.”

According to him, those behind the naira redesign policy are massively deploying resources and tools to defeat the political party that gave them the platform to serve the country just because they could not impose the candidates of their choice.

 

 

Do you have any information or event for ABUJAPRESS to publish or cover? Kindly Call us on +2349075556668 or send us message on Whatsapp number +2349075556668 or send us an email [email protected]