LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has written to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) requesting information on the amount of fresh naira notes distributed to commercial banks.
In the same letter dated 16 February, 2023, Falana demanded that the central bank produces a list of clients who may have withdrawn more money than the N100,000 cap permitted by the CBN.
In the letter from Falana Chambers signed by Femi Adedeji, ESQ, the senior lawyer asked that the central bank give specifics on how the new notes were delivered to commercial banks and threatened to take the CBN to court if it failed to comply within seven days.
The letter read: “Our attention has been drawn to your statement wherein you claimed that some unnamed politicians have mopped up the new Naira notes made available to all commercial banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We are compelled to request you to furnish us with information concerning the amount of the designed notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations made available to each commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Furthermore, we also request you to furnish us with the list of customers of the commercial banks who collected more than N100,000 approved by you from the commercial banks.
“As this request is made pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, you are required to accede to our request within 7 days of the receipt of this letter.
“TAKE NOTICE that if you fail or refuse to furnish us with the requested information before the deadline of 7 days we shall not hesitate to pray the Federal High Court to compel you to accede to our request.”
This is in response to the present shortage of Old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes since the introduction of the Naira Swap Policy, but the CBN has insisted that it has printed enough new notes, with CBN governor Godwin Emefiele accusing politicians of hoarding the new notes.
