A top member of Mr Peter Obi’s campaign team, Aisha Yesufu has openly asked supporters of Peter Obi, also known as #Obidients in Enugu State to back the governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr Frank Nweke Jr.
In a viral video, Yesufu said there were some corrupt opportunists who have joined Labour Party and are now benefitting from Obi’s proven capacity.
Millions of ordinary Nigerians backed the candidature of Obi, not minding their religious background, political party or ethnicity. According to them, they voted for the personality of Peter Obi, not necessarily for Labour Party, because he has an excellent track record.
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Mr. Christian Aburime, has declared a journalist, Mr. Raymond Ozoji, an enemy of the State Government for reporting activities of the Labour Party in the state the way he (Aburime) does not like.
Aburime in a WhatsApp message he sent to the journalist on Saturday, March 4, 2023 informed that he has officially blacklisted the journalist for not writing in favour of the present state government and to that extent the journalist has been declared enemy of the government and people of Anambra State.
The WhatsApp message from Aburime reads: “Mr Raymond Ozoji. It is very obvious you have decided to be an enemy of Soludo government. An enemy of progress and development of Anambra State. An enemy of Ndi Anambra!! I have officially blacklisted you as enemy of this government and the good people of Anambra State!”
The CPS forwarded the headline of a story by the journalist which reads, “11th March: Tension Rises Over Majority In Anambra Legislature, As Labour Party Prepares For Another Tsunami…”
The journalist, who did not bandy words with the CPS, issued a public notice which he circulated on various WhatsApp groups and social media platforms, calling on the Police and other security agencies to take note, should any harm befall him.
The short public notice written by the journalist after the threat reads: “The above was a WhatsApp message sent to me by Mr. Christian Aburime, Press Secretary to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state.
“I wish to state that any harm done to RAYMOND OZOJI henceforth, Mr. Christian Aburime should be held responsible.
“The Police and other security agencies should take note.”
Lagos state is one of the most cosmopolitan states in Nigeria that can be easily likened to present day United States of America (USA), where people are given the opportunity to explore the opportunities available in the state because of the strategic nature of its location to the economic activities and development of the country, Nigeria. It is also worthy to note that most of the present developments witnessed today in the state is a combine effort and contributions of both indigenes and non-indigenes of the state, and most non-indigenes, especially the Igbos who are either born in the state or migrated to the state to explore commercial and other economic opportunities. Private Citizens have contributed a great deal to the development of Lagos State but they have been made to endure multiple tax regime and political feudal system that tend to have reduced the expected pace in terms of development and opportunities the state should have witnessed today.
And in the bid to liberate Lagos state from its long strangulation of political feudal system and ruthless godfatherism, where every policy of the state has to be approved by a single individual, irrespective of its irrationality, and regardless of its long or short-term effect on the people, there is an utmost and urgent need to usher in a new change where the voice of the people can be heard; where policies of the government of the state will have the interest of the people at heart; and where the development of the state will have a human face, without discrimination against any tribe or ethnic group residing in the state.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour, the Governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State has proven beyond every reasonable doubt that he is the ideal governorship material the state needs now to actualize the long expected political liberation and progression of the people in the state.
He is the ideal governorship candidate that will end the long reign of political godfatherism in the state, and will in turn enthrone an ideal democratic system where every tribe and persons, irrespective of your social strata in the society will have a voice in the state.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour is a young architecture, activist and politician that is just 39years old. He previously contested for the Lagos West Senatorial district in 2019 under the platform of the PDP. He left the PDP for LP in 2022 when he realized that it was time to contest under a platform that will give succor to the downtrodden and suffering Nigerians in Lagos State, and he eventually emerged as the Governorship candidate of the party (LP) after a stiff contest at the party’s primary election.
As a cosmopolitan city boy like his father, Olawole Rhodes-Vivour who got married to Barr. Nkechi Rhodes-Vivour, Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour also got married to Dr. Ifeyinwa Aniebo (a molecular geneticist by profession). Ironically, instead of applauding his cosmopolitan disposition of getting married outside his tribe as a means of bringing about ethnic and cultural unity in the country through inter-tribal marriage, some querulous critics have had the effrontery to lampoon him for having anything to do with a woman from the South-East (Igbo), like his father, and have even threatened not to vote for him during the governorship election.
But Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour does not appear troubled by these pity-thinking individuals who have left the main discourse of his leadership competence to delve into his private marital decision. To the end, it has become obvious that some political opportunities are out to play ethnic politics against this young man, hence, I am compelled to speak to the conscience of every resident electorate of Lagos state not to buy into this cheap political gambit against one who is out to give them a new lease of fresh air through competent leadership in the state. Also, the Igbos residing in the state must come out in their numbers to stand behind Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour as a means of shaming these ethnic jingoist that have become the major reason of our national retrogression and underdevelopment.
I will also want to urge the Yorubas residing in Lagos state not to abandon their illustrious son who will eventually make them very proud if given the opportunity to create a new liberated Lagos State for them. In the same vein, I will also appeal to Lagosians from other tribes to vote for Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour for a great and better Lagos state devoid of intimidation from some ego-inflated touts in the state that have constituted themselves to unofficial non-state actors with state recognition and acknowledgment.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour is already a well-established young man, well-exposed and has a leadership track record that will help in changing the narrative of governance in Lagos state. He has been a leading voice in many national policy issues, and has always stood on the side of the people and the protection of their collective interests; and bearing in mind that he is from a well-respected family in Lagos state and Nigeria, he will definitely give his best to maintain the long standing family good legacy, as to provide good governance for the people of Lagos state, where greater opportunities and environment will be created for private business and activities to thrive through good government policies.
The Senator-elect for Anambra Central Senatorial District, Chief Victor Umeh, has vouched full involvement in the election petition of the presumed winner of the 2023 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, of the Labour Party (LP).
Umeh who said that his joy of winning the February 25 poll would not be complete without Obi reclaiming his mandate in court ,said Obi got over two million votes in Rivers State but was shortchanged.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commisdion (INEC) declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Ahmed BolaTinubu, the winner of the presidential election.
Speaking ar a radio programme monitored by our correspondent, Umeh while thanking the people of Anambra Central Senatorial District for voting for him, enjoined them not to despair over the rigging of the presidential election, stating that Obi would reclaim his mandate by the grace of God.
He revealed that Obi constitutionally won in no fewer than 30 states as against INEC claim of winning in 12 states.
Umeh, who is nicknamed ‘court martial’ because of scores of cases he won while in the All Progressives Grand Alliance as its national chairman and more said over 38 Senior Advocates of Nigeria ( SANs) had taken up the Obi election petition matter pro bono.
He said, “I thank Ndi Anambra central for voting for me and I’m happy that I won .I promise to continue doing the things I’m known for by speaking for our people and contributing in debates for the progress of Nigeria but my joy is not complete because of Peter Obi: he won the election but was rigged out .If the winner is not announced but the loser ,the land will be angry and indeed the land is angry .
“By 4am on Wednesday ,Igwe Mbaukwu called me with a sad news that INEC had declared Tinubu the winner of the election.I wonder why the declaration in that odd hours of the night and why INEC was in a hurry to give Tinubu Certificate of Return in the evening of the day they declared him winner when National Assembly election winners have not been given theirs .
” It’s obvious that since INEC robbed the true winner of his victory ,there has been no celebration, no dancing; no gunshots because the wrong person was declared winner .It was not what we asked to be bought for us at the market that was bought .
“INEC told us that Obi won in 12 states and got 25% in 20 states which is not true for Obi got 25% in 30 states from the real result available to us .
From our calculation,Obi had a landslide victory at Lagos state and scored more that 2 million votes in Rivers state .
“The real result from one LG is out and that’s how it is in almost all LG’s in Rivers state. In that LG ,Obi got above 70,000 votes and APC got 3,000 votes but they changed it and gave Obi 3,000 votes and 80,000 votes to Tinubu .The votes allocated to us in Benue ,Plateau were not what we got and I strongly believe that the court will do the right calculation and give us back our victory . It was possible in 2003 when Obis Anambra state guber election victory was stolen and it will be possible again .
“We’ve set up a situation room at Abuja on Friday after which I went with Obi to see the EU observers ,38 SANS drawn across Nigeria have offered their services “pro Bono” and more are joining .
“In this petition ,I will fully be part of it as I was in 2003’and God of Abraham ,Isaac and Jacob who sees in secret and abhors injustice will reward us .
“Be strong ! Don’t fret! We have more than enough evidence to get this stolen victory back at the court .
Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election may have come and gone but the controversies trailing its conduct by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appear to be far from over.
This comes as a senior member of INEC’s staff has told THE WHISTLER that the presidential poll was manipulated in favour of Bola Ahmed Tinubu — the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
The official who was deployed to one of the southwestern states during the election, claimed that the electoral process was manipulated and undermined by various forces in connivance with members of INEC.
In the wee hours of March 1, four days after the presidential election, INEC declared that Tinubu of the ruling APC polled 8,794,726 votes to emerge as president-elect ahead of his closest contenders, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who secured 6,101,533 votes.
INEC declared the winner despite complaints of alleged discrepancies in collated figures and allegations that the electoral umpire failed to abide by its own regulation mandating electronic transmission of the results from polling units using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.
Known as the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the website which was designed to receive photographic images of election result sheets in real-time directly from polling units across the country was reported to have suffered system collapse that prevented the transmission.
But the commission’s senior official who spoke to THE WHISTLER on the condition of anonymity, said the claim that transmission of the results was prevented by server downtime was part of a game plan to manipulate the election.
“It was a very messy election. I am an INEC staff member but no! no!! no!!!
“They (INEC management) made an excuse that our server was hit by hackers 162 times but they are merely deceiving members of the public.
“Why are commercial banks’ servers not being attacked that way? Do banks suffer such attacks to the point that their customers are not able to carry out transactions? It (the election outcome) was scripted and orchestrated to turn out that way,” said the official.
According to him, governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) made a special arrangement to take care of INEC staff during the election even though the commission already paid allowances to staff deployed for elections.
“In fact, they (APC governors) were taking care of us and fed us twice daily during our stay for the presidential election.
“I heard they gave money to some INEC officials in Lagos. And they also gave election observers money, that’s what usually happens. Some APC-controlled states were also allowed to assist the commission with transportation of sensitive election materials on election day.”
The official recalled that, “INEC management had instructed state offices to not deploy election materials and personnel until they’re instructed to do so. That was why they delayed in some states. In strongholds of the APC, they quickly deployed personnel and materials to polling units and in strongholds of opponents, they delayed. In some places, they did not even deploy personnel to the field.
“For instance, in a whole local government where the Labour Party is popular, elections did not start until past 12 PM. Was our chairman not supposed to announce that there won’t be election in that case? In fact, I learnt that voting did not start until about 4:30 PM in some areas.
“All the things people are saying about the election being rigged in favour of the APC is true, there’s no gainsaying it. In fact, worse things that people aren’t aware of happened during the presidential election,” he said.
On Saturday, the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at a meeting with resident electoral commissioners, appeared to admit that some officials of the electoral umpire were compromised to manipulate the polls.
He said while planning for the election was “painstakingly done,” issues of “logistics, election technology, behaviour of some election personnel at different levels, attitude of some party agents and supporters” affected the outcome negatively.
Yakubu directed that “All staff found to be negligent, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including Collation and Returning Officers, must not be involved” in the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections to avoid a repeat while promising to that proven infractions against political candidates would be addressed.
Meanwhile, the INEC source told THE WHISTLER
that some of the challenges recorded during presidential election also arose from poorly trained ad-hoc staff and intimidation of voters and personnel of the commission.
“A video had gone viral where a lawmaker was going round Lagos and opening ballot boxes to see if the electorate were voting the APC. Where he saw that APC got more votes, he left it but in places where other parties dominated, he tore the ballot papers. I can get the video and send it to you.
“The international observers did not lie in their submissions that the election was flawed. They had even noted before the election that there would be problems because a lot of the ad-hoc staff used were either not properly trained or not trained at all and this was because INEC did “fire brigade” training before the election.
“In fact, some people were recruited on the day of the election at the polling unit. All they asked them was if they could operate a phone before engaging them to handle the BVAS machine. I even saw where a minor held the BVAS machine.
“If I was prepared for INEC to sack me, I would have granted an interview to pressmen exposing some of these infractions. If I decide to expose what happened in my PU alone, the INEC chairman would order my sacking. I will become a hero but INEC will sack me because I will indict a lot of persons and that would also lead to their sacking from the commission.
“If I decide to speak out, even the head of the ICT department will go, they will call for his head because he too was compromised.”
Many Nigerians believe that Mr Peter Obi, the candidate of an unpopular political party, was cheated through ballot rigging in the election. The former Anambra State Governor enjoyed the support of young people who constitute over 60% the country’s total population of eligible voters.
He defeated the declared winner, Bola Tinubu, a two-time former Lagos State Governor and acclaimed ‘godfather’ of Lagos politics, in the latter’s stronghold but failed to pull sufficient votes to be declared winner according to INEC figures.
However, the INEC source claimed that Obi could have won the election if he wasn’t rigged through the collusion of some INEC officials and the ruling party.
“Obi really tried and even the spread that people are talking about, Tinubu did not get it. From what I saw, Obi is the only candidate that got the spread. He (Obi) really worked hard and people really wanted him and you can see that the Labour Party has won a lot of House of Reps seats and the Senate.
“And let me tell you, the Labour Party is likely get Lagos in this governorship election (and) at least three other states. See, you people underestimated the Labour Party. I recall people said they cannot even get one million votes in the presidential election but how many million votes did they get?”
He added, “I don’t know if those (LP and PDP) going to court can succeed but they can get a lot of evidence of election fraud to show to the court. All they (the aggrieved candidates) need to do is to ask people who have evidence of malpractices in any form from the polling units to come forward with them and give them a token in return. This way they will get all the evidence they need.”…..CONTINUE READING
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will on Monday approach the Court of Appeal, hoping to set aside an earlier ruling regarding the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other sensitive materials used for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
This was disclosed by a top INEC official at the weekend in Abuja.
“The commission as a law-abiding institution would seek the Court’s leave concerning the BVAS, they have to be re-configured polling units by polling units for the next election.We have to approach the court to grant us leave to do the re-configuration, as this cannot be done without the court order. The re-configuration must be done on time as it would be done manually and would be deployed to the designated PUs,” the official said.Recall that there have been mixed reactions on the outcome of the elections, especially on the real time transmission of collated results from the BVAS to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (iReV).
The court had last week stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC from tampering with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS deployed in last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
Obi in his application moved by his team of lawyers, led by Mr Alex Ejesieme, SAN, sought six principal reliefs, while Atiku’s lawyer, Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.
However, INEC is expected to deploy the same BVAS for the subnational elections, meaning that the commission will have to reconfigure them and make them fit for purpose.
Checks revealed that it takes an average of five days to configure the BVAS, meaning that the commission has to begin the process of reconfiguration latest by Tuesday.
A source in one of the state offices of the commission who did not want his name mentioned due to the sensitivity of the issue however said the commission would be approaching the courts to vacate the order.
He said: There are over 176,000 polling units. The BVAS is polling units specific, which means that you cannot do a mass reconfiguration. The machines have to be reconfigured individually and those take an average of five days.
“If we leave the BVAS as the court has ordered, it simply means that we cannot use them for the state elections. So, we are approaching the court to seek a way out”.
The Labour Party said it had engaged the services of at least 20 senior advocates of Nigeria to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election on behalf of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
According to sources within the party, the lawyers drawn from different chambers were being furnished with materials that would be used as evidence in court.
The president-elect and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, was announced the winner of the keenly contested election last Wednesday.
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the LP flag bearer, who got 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
But Atiku and Obi rejected the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, with each claiming at separate press conferences that the election was fraught with violence and massive rigging.
The drama took a twist last Friday when the two major opposition candidates were reported to have approached the court to seek permission for the inspection of election materials used during the poll.
At least six states – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto – had dragged the Federal Government before the Supreme Court over the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections before withdrawing the case last Friday.
But the National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farouk, disclosed some SANs expressed their interest in joining the legal battle to prove Obi’s case.
While disclosing that INEC had lost its independence through its alleged collusion with the ruling APC by giving victory to Tinubu, Farouk said the LP’s hope was vested in the judiciary to do the needful.
“We have more than 20 SANs that are willing to participate and offer their services for the renewal and emergence of a new Nigeria. As I am talking to you, our lawyers are working on it.
“But this is not something we can discuss on the pages of a newspaper. All I can tell you is that we have started ‘trekking’ to the court,” he said,
Asked if the leadership of the party and the candidate had been able to garner concrete evidence other than the alleged isolated incidents the APC claimed the Labour Party was dangling to get public sympathy, Farouk said, “The court is not a polling box that they can smash and put in what they want.
“If the APC thinks they can pre-empt the court, let them do it. They had earlier pre-empted the election that they were going to win by hook or crook and they had claimed they won. Let’s wait and see. Unlike INEC, the judiciary is a different thing.
“We have seen how independent the commission is. But we need to also examine how independent the judiciary also is in a matter of this magnitude. Let’s see the solace it can offer the masses. Let’s see if the judiciary has also shattered the hope of Nigerians just as INEC did.”
Farouk, however, couldn’t give a definite date when the case would be filed.
“We are saying Obi is the winner from the record we have before us. But INEC did something else. They hurriedly carried out the plan of their paymaster.
“Therefore we have every reason to claim victory if it is being denied.
On the part of Atiku and the PDP, they have the right and data to claim that their mandate was stolen. The only arbiter now is the court.
So many people can claim one thing. It is the judiciary that gives a verdict based on the evidence before it.”
Similarly, the PDP said it has commenced a preliminary study of the results of the presidential election to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a staff member of the publicity division of the party said lawyers with strong affiliation to the PDP were studying the pages of the reports of the elections before them.
“Why the hurry (in putting together a legal team)? Like his excellency, Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday (Thursday), our lawyers are studying the results to advise accordingly but definitely, the party is challenging the election. We can’t continue like this and expect to become a great nation.
“Some lawyers whose names I don’t want to reveal yet actually approached the party, offering pro bono services. They are angry like every other well-meaning Nigerian. These eggheads are currently reviewing the entire process, particularly the flagrant breach of the Electoral Act. This is all I can say for now,” the source said.
Tinubu camp reacts
But the chief spokesman of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, said that the president-elect and his camp were not intimidated by the legal threat of the opposition.
He also confirmed that the legal directorate of the PCC was putting together more than 12 SANs to defend his principal in the alleged case of rigging and stolen mandate.
Although he did not reveal the names of members of the legal team, the legal directorate of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation is led by Babatunde Ogala, who could not be reached for comments.
But Keyamo said, “The number of our advocates is around that figure (12). But I can’t confirm the exact figures at the moment. However, it doesn’t matter the number of SANs the Labour Party is parading. It is not a competition.
“I am a lawyer and can tell you specifically that the numbers don’t matter. It is all about the quality of evidence. But I can tell you that we have enough to nullify more of their votes than theirs to nullify our own.”
Meanwhile, the Young Progressives Party said it would make its position known as soon as it was done going through the reports on the election.
Speaking with the newsmen, the National Publicity Secretary of YPP, Egbeola Wale-Martins, said, “We are still studying the outcome of the election and would make our stance of whether or not to proceed to the tribunal known after our findings.”
But Wale-Martins’ position contradicted that of the party’s National Secretary, Vidiyeno Bamaiyi, who told our correspondent that the party would not approach the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.
“Our presidential candidate did not campaign anywhere. On what basis are we going to challenge the results? We didn’t go out to tell Nigerians our dreams for the country,” Bamaiyi added.
The leadership of the Social Democratic Party and Zenith Labour Party on Friday said they would not challenge the outcome of the poll while the African Action Alliance said it had yet to make up its mind on the way forward.
The spokesperson for the African Action Congress, Adeyeye Olorunfemi, while reacting to the outcome of the election, said, “The National Working Committee of our party will sit and come up with a clarification but for now, there is no update in that regard.”
The National Chairman of the Action Alliance, Dr Kenneth Udeze, told one of our correspondents that the party would make known its decision after the conclusion of its ongoing investigation of the alleged irregularities during the election.
On his part, the National Chairman and presidential candidate of the Action Democratic Party, Yabaji Sani, said the ACP was studying the process.
But a leader in the Accord Party who did not mention his name said the presidential candidate of the party had already congratulated the presidential-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Similarly, the National Chairman of the National Rescue Movement, Amb. Isaac Udeh, and the National Secretary of the Allied Peoples Movement, Oyadeyi Ayodele, said their parties would not challenge the result of the election.
The suspected cybercrime specialist that recently brought some men of the Nigeria Police, Anambra State Command into ridicule including the Police Public Relations Officer, Zone 13, Ukpo, SP Nkiruka Nwode, Nnamdi Daniel Emeh was last Friday arrested and whisked to the Force Headquarters, Abuja by a joint operation of the INTERPOL operatives in Benin Republic and Nigeria.
Emeh who is 26 years old, until he went into a mess for allegedly swindling unsuspecting members of the public through cybercrime, was serving as a National Youth Service Corps, NYSC in the facility of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Annex, Awkuzu, Anambra State Police Command.
Recall that the accused notorious crime expert was declared wanted by the Nigeria Police Force on February 20, 2023, for impersonation of an Assistant Superintendent of Police and defamation of character and the said Emeh Nnamdi is currently cooling off his feet in the police dungeon in Abuja.
Before he attempted to flee Nigeria, Nnamdi Daniel Emeh with his criminal gang, including a DSS staff, Paul Okoli serving in Benin Edo State capital connived and defamed the characters of some top police officers in Anambra State Command where he linked the senior police officers for kidnappings and killing of suspects after extorting huge sums of money as well as human organ traffickers.
The Court of Appeal Abuja Division has granted the Exparte application brought before it by the People’s democratic party and it’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour party with it’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, urging the Court to grant their application to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) over the conduct of the just concluded February 25 Presidential election.
Moving the application on Friday Counsel for Abubakar of the PDP, Adedamola Faloku asked the Court to grant the Exparte application brought before it pursuant to Section One hundred and forty-six subsection one of the Electoral Act 2022 and under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section six subsection Six A & B of the 1999 Constitution.
The application seeks seven prayers predicated upon six grounds, one of which that the elections was marred with fraudulent act.
In the same vein, the Exparte application brought before it by the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate Peter Obi was also heard .
Alex Ejeseme, who represented the labour party also relied on six grounds urging the Court to grant its application to inspect INEC materials used for the conduct of the 2023 presidential election.
Justice Joseph Ikyegh who presided over the matter granted the applications.
The Supreme Court, on Friday, nullified the ban on use of the old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes as legal tenders.
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel of Justices, held that the old banknotes should remain valid legal tenders until December 31.
It held that the old Naira notes should be used alongside the redesigned currencies.
It faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for introducing the demonization policy, without due consultation with the Council of States, the Federal Executive Council, the Civil Society and other relevant stakeholders.
In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court accused President Buhari of disobeying its interim order that halted the full implementation of the new monetary policy.
The apex court said the defendants (CBN And Federal Government) doesn’t deserve to be heard because it has refused to obey the orders of this Honourable Court. “The disobedience of the orders of the Court is a sign of the failure of rule of law. This suit has merits.”
The court also held that the demonetisation policy is inconsistent with the CBN Act and that the President cannot make a unilateral policy without carrying the Plaintiffs (state Governors) along.
Continuing, the Supreme Court said that in implementing the policy, the president is under an obligation to carry the national council of states along and that the policy has impeded the functions of state governments.
It also said that the directive of the president is illegal.
