Governor El-Rufai Insists Old Notes Remain Legal Tender In Kaduna

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has asked Kaduna residents to disregard President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that N500 and N1000 notes are no longer legal tenders.

Mallam El-Rufai insisted that the old notes remain legal tender in Kaduna state and that businesses that refuse to accept them will be sealed.

In his national broadcast early Thursday, February 16, Buhari declared that old N500 and N1000 were no longer valid. He, however, stated that 200 Naira notes can still be used until April 10.

He had asked Nigerians to take them to the Central Bank and designated places.

But in his statewide address on Thursday night, El-Rufai said the notes remain legal tender until the Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise.

El-Rufai said: To avoid doubt, all the old and new notes shall remain in use as legal tender in Kaduna State until the Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise.

“I, therefore, appeal to all Kaduna State residents to continue using the old and new notes side by side without any fear. The Kaduna State Government and its agencies shall seal any facility that refuses to accept the old notes as legal tender and prosecute the owners.

“If need be, we shall take further consequential actions according to the law. The address by the President earlier this morning limiting the legal tender status of old notes to only N200 amounts to total disregard and disobedience of the ruling of February 8th which was extended further yesterday by the Supreme Court.

“The misguided action of the Attorney-General to mislead the President into engaging in this 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.

“The decision to recognise only N200 as legal tender till April that the President announced this morning was offered to the state governments as part of proposals for an out-of-court settlement three days ago.

He added that 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.

“We also believe that circulating N200 only to be inadequate in alleviating the suffering that we see every day. We insisted that all the components of the Supreme Court order should be complied with,” he said.