Old naira: Disobedience to Supreme Court order invitation to anarchy – Keyamo

The spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), Festus Keyamo, has said that disobedience to the Supreme Court orders is an invitation to anarchy in Nigeria.

Festus Keyamo, during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, commented on the President Buhari’s recent live broadcast, in which the President said that the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on old notes stands, despite the Supreme Court’s suspending the currency swap deadline of February 10.

Following an application by counsel to Kaduna State, Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), seeking to penalise the federal government for non-compliance with the earlier order of the apex court suspending the currency swap deadline of February 10, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said its February 8 order restraining the Federal Government and its agencies from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the use of old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes stands.

But in a live broadcast, President Muhammadu Buhari said the policy was put in place to check money laundering, terrorism and other vices that could hamper the economy.

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Keyamo said, “I think the president thought he is playing safe because he acknowledged in his speech that the matter is in court. Before the matter is decided so he is trying to bring a middle ground. The country is burning; there is riot everywhere.

“If I where to advise the president, I would advise him to comply strictly to the tenets  of the order of the Supreme Court. All the notes should circulate for now. The old notes should circulate side by side with the new notes because that is the order of the Supreme Court.

“And by virtue of our constitution, all authorities in Nigeria must obey the orders of the Supreme Court; anything to the contrary is a dissent or anarchy. The day we begin to disobey the orders of the Supreme Court that is an invitation to intervention in our democracy, because the judiciary and the Supreme Court are the last bastion to defend our democracy.”