Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has commended the Supreme Court of Nigeria for restraining the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the old naira notes to cease to be legal tenders.

The Supreme Court had earlier on Wednesday ruled on an application by the governors of Kaduna, Zamfara and Kogi States seeking an order to stop the monetary control policy of the apex bank.

A seven-member panel of the court led by Justice John Okoro halted the move of the federal government in a ruling in an exparte application brought by the three governors.

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In a reaction, El-Rufai thanked the justices for their decision and appealed to the federal authorities to treat the ruling as an opportunity to relieve human suffering.
In a statement issued by his special adviser on media and communication, Muyiwa Adekeye, Mr El-Rufai said the central bank did not consider any emergency justification for ’’this callous decision to deny people access to their deposited cash”.

El-Rufai said he and his Kogi and Zamfara States colleagues were compelled to approach the Supreme Court to mitigate the needless stress imposed on ordinary people and their livelihoods by the ill-timed, incompetent planning and execution of an overnight cashless policy.