The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has appealed to the Supreme Court to make a scapegoat out of those flouting court orders.
Speaking on a national television station early on Tuesday, Falana, publicly criticised the CBN for disregarding the temporal ruling of the Supreme Court which suspended the implementation of the February 10 deadline on the use of the old naira notes.
Nigerians in the last few weeks have experienced pain caused by the implementation of deadline on old naira notes, as they are unable to get the new notes, while the old notes are being sold to them by Point of Sales vendors.
After a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, the CBN governor had moved the deadline earlier set for the expiration of the legal tender status of the old notes from January 31 to February 10.
However, the Supreme Court, on February 8, granted an interim injunction restraining the CBN and the Federal Government from implementing the February 10 deadline.
Falana on Tuesday, criticised the government for failing to comply with the Supreme Court order.
“In a country where the rule of law operates, once the Supreme Court has determined a matter or given an order, it is expected that all and sundry – everybody – will comply with the order,” Falana said.
He added that a statement credited to the CBN that it would not comply with the order of the apex court because it was not a party to the case could only be tenable in a “banana republic”.
The SAN added that an example should be made of those flouting court orders, stressing that nobody should feel that they were above the law.
“For me, an example has to be made this time around, so that nobody will feel that he’s above the law in our country,” he added.
