Prof Sagay Knocks Emefiele for Disrespecting Supreme Court

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele should be jailed for contempt of the Supreme Court, an eminent professor of law, Itse Sagay (SAN), said yesterday.

He believes spending some time behind bars will make the CBN helmsman realise the enormity of the “merciless pain” the naira crisis has subjected Nigerians to.

Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), urged affected parties to initiate contempt proceedings against Emefiele at the Supreme Court.

He insisted that an order by the highest court in the land, rightly or wrongly made, must be obeyed by all until set aside.

Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court, in a case filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states, barred the Federal Government, acting through the CBN or any other agent, from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the use of old naira notes.

In a unanimous ruling by a seven-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, it held that the “interim injunction” will subsist “pending the hearing and determination of the plaintiffs/applicants’ motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.”

But yesterday, Emefiele said there was no extension of the February 10 deadline for the old N1000, N500, and N200 banknotes to stop being legal tenders.

“There is no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10th,” he said when he met with members of the diplomatic community in Abuja.

The presidency said it would make its position known after today’s Supreme Court hearing.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said in a statement: “We wish to state that it is not true that the Federal Government or the CBN have taken a preemptive action on the legality of currency as a legal tender in view of the pendency of the case before the Supreme Court.

“The position of the government and the CBN will be made known upon the determination of the suit coming up tomorrow (today).”

Prof Sagay believes Emefiele’s attitude towards the subsisting order was highly contemptuous.