Following the Supreme Court's decision on the Buhari government's controversial cashless policy, which has subjected Nigerians to untold hardships, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has demanded the immediate resignation of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation AGF, Abubakar Malami, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
The National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the party, Salihu Lukman, made the demand in a statement issued Friday in Abuja.
He also expressed regrets that President Muhammadu Buhari could have been led astray by the Supreme Court's rulings on illegal acts and abuses of executive power.
He said, “We, and indeed all Nigerians, are grateful to the Supreme Court Justices led by Justice Akomaye for this landmark judicial intervention.
“Given the injurious nature of the consequences of the cashless policy of the Federal Government as was implemented thus far, and the damage of the Supreme Court ruling to the profile of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami must take personal responsibility for this act of illegality by the Federal Government. In advanced democracies, public officers who commit such acts of illegality voluntarily resign from their appointments.
“Therefore, if indeed, the cashless policy of the Federal Government was supposedly designed to conform with extant legal provisions of the Nigerian Federation, now that it turned out in the direct opposite, both the CBN Governor, Mr Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Malami should accept the limitations of both their knowledge of the law and commitment to democracy by resigning from their respective offices forthwith.”
“Rule of law is fundamental to democracy and individuals who flagrantly violate the laws or promote acts that breach the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must not be tolerated”, he stated.
Lukman stated that leaders and members of the APC from the North-West were overjoyed by the Supreme Court's decision, which declared the Federal Government's cashless policy unconstitutional and a violation of Nigerians' fundamental rights under the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended.
He continued: “By this ruling of the Supreme Court as delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye, the old N1,000, N500 and N200 remain legal tender and Nigerians are free to have access to all their monies deposited in Nigerian banks without any form of restrictions as contained in the Federal Government cashless policy.
“On behalf of our party leaders and members from North-West, we salute our three Governors, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Bello Matawalle, respectively of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states for their courage and initiative to challenge the action of the Federal Government in the Supreme Court. It is a patriotic duty to challenge the policy of the government, which unfortunately plunges Nigerians into hardship and unimaginable shock, notwithstanding partisan affiliations. By so doing, our leaders in APC led by Mallam Nasir, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Matawalle has once again demonstrated a superior commitment to democracy.
“We call on Nigerians to take note of the fact that the crusade against the Federal Government’s cashless policy was led by APC, not minding the attempt to sensationally politicise it to the benefit of opposition political parties and their candidates in this election season. It is gratifying that Nigerians resisted the antics of subversive politicians who wanted to use such crude methods, including inflicting untold hardship and pains on Nigerians to provoke citizens into voting against the APC during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
“We commend and salute Nigerians for their faith in our party, APC and determination to support our party and our candidates during the 2023 elections. We are indeed confident that Nigerians across all the 36 states of the Federation will reaffirm this confidence during the Governorship and States’ Houses of Assembly election on Saturday, March 11, 2023.”