Rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has written to the Central Bank of Nigeria demanding details of the amount of new naira notes distributed to commercial banks across the country.
He also demanded that the CBN should provide the list of customers who have withdrawn more than the N100,000 maximum sum approved by the apex bank.
The CBN has maintained that it printed enough new N200, N500 and N1,000 notes to go round, blaming politicians for hoarding the new notes.
However, in a letter from Falana Chambers signed by Femi Adedeji, ESQ, dated February 16, 2023, Falana demanded that the CBN should provide details on how the new notes were disbursed to commercial banks.
The letter partly 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.
He further threatened to take a legal action if the CBN failed to provide the information in seven days.
“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 seven 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 seven days we shall not hesitate to pray the Federal High Court to compel you to accede to our request.”