Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has written to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), demanding details of the amount of new naira notes disbursed to commercial banks across the country.
Falana also demanded that the apex bank reveal the names of customers who may have withdrawn more money over the N100,000 limit authorized by the CBN in a letter dated February 16, 2023.
The CBN has insisted that enough new notes have been issued despite the fact that old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes have remained scarce since the currency swap scheme was implemented. CBN governor Godwin Emefiele has accused politicians of hoarding the new notes.
Yet in a letter from Falana Chambers written by Femi Adedeji, ESQ, the senior attorney asked that the central bank provide specifics on how the new notes were issued to commercial banks, threatening to take the CBN to court if it failed to do so 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.”