A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Rasheed Adegoke on Thursday revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari might be taken to court for continued disobedient of the Supreme Court order over the cashless policy initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
It would be recalled that the Federal Government’s cashless policy has been criticised by many individuals and some governments due to the inconvenience and pain it has inflicted on the people of the country.
Many Nigerians deposited their old naira notes in banks with the hope of getting new naira notes in return, but their hopes were dashed as the majority of the citizens of the country have found it difficult to access their money (both old and new naira notes) deposited in the commercial banks.
Some are left with no other options than to buy the new naira notes and some risk paying heavy charges to Point of Sale (PoS) operators to withdraw their money.
Some Northern state governors dragged the federal government and the apex bank to the Supreme Court and the court has ruled in their favour, mandating the FG to accept the old naira notes as legal tender till December 31.
The president and the CBN have remained silent ever since the judgment of the apex bank has been passed; which constitutes a flagrant disobedience to the order of the apex bank.
Rasheed Adegoke (SAN) said the continued disobedience might make some persons prosecute the president after he hands over power on May 29.
The SAN said “These are impeachable offences. In a sane society when an incumbent is totally disregarding the rule of law and court orders, the national assembly would have commenced impeachment procedures.
“And when such acts would affect the fundamental rights of the citizens the court might set aside such acts and when he leaves office, he might be exposed to prosecution for violations committed while in office.
“The president does not enjoy immunity for life and that is one of the ways we can start to establish institutions in the country. In Nigeria, we only have strong men and weak institutions. It behoves the three arms of government and other institutions under them to work together to ensure the establishment of strong institutions in the country.
“A good example was when Donald Trump refused to leave the government house and wanted to carry on in defiance of Americans’ decisions. All the institutions withdrew from him without anyone giving specific instructions.
“Right now, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has been declared the winner of the just concluded election, the next thing is that certain paraphernalia of office should be shifting towards him. Buhari by now should be seen that he is being denuded of these things; with this, he would not continue to see himself as the ultimate that can do no wrong.”
