Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, has urged Kaduna residents to ignore President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that the N500 and N1000 bills are no longer valid.
El-Rufai stressed that old banknotes are legal in Kaduna state and businesses that refuse to accept them will be sealed.
During his national show on Thursday morning, Buhari said the old N500 and N1000 are no longer valid. However, he said that the 200 naira note could still be used until April 10.
He asked the Nigerians to bring them to the Central Bank and designated places. But in his statewide speech on Thursday night, El-Rufai said the notes are legal tender until Nigeria’s Supreme Court rules otherwise.
El-Rufai said:
“For the avoidance of 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 residents of Kaduna State to continue to use 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…”
