N5,000 Note: NBA Threatens To Sue CBN

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has threatened legal action against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the plan to introduce the N5,000 currency note.

The NBA also said that Nigeria has sufficient legal grounds upon which to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to reverse its judgment that ceded the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon.
The association, which described the planned introduction of the currency as a shallow and poorly thought-out initiative by the CBN, said it would diminish the lives of Nigerians and push corruption and money laundering to unimaginable heights.

In a communiqué after its 52nd Annual General Conference in Abuja, read by its immediate past president, Mr. Joseph Daudu, the NBA frowned at the inhuman manner Nigerian citizens residing in Bakassi are being treated.
It warned Cameroon to respect the Green-Tree Agreement.
The communique said: “The grossest form of human rights abuses are currently perpetrated against the people of Bakassi by the governments of both Cameroon and Nigeria. In the case of Cameroon, there exists discernible and visible violation of Article 3 (1) and 2 (a) of the Green Tree Agreement of June 12, 2006 which provided inter alia: ‘Cameroon, after the transfer of authority to it by Nigeria, guarantees to Nigerian nationals living in the Bakassi Peninsula the exercise of the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined  in international human rights law and in other relevant provisions of International Law. In particular, Cameroon shall: not force Nigerian nationals living in Bakassi Peninsula to change their nationality.’”

The NBA also blamed the Nigerian government for ill treating the Bakassi people who fled into the country over gross abuse of their rights, as refugees, with the effect that they have become stateless and denied the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

On the possibility of Nigeria getting a reversal of the ICJ judgment, the association said: “The NBA is aware that there are grounds upon which the government of Nigeria may legitimately apply for a revision of the ICJ judgment on 10th October 2002, and having adjudged those grounds as being worthy of reconsidered by the ICJ.”