Richard Anyebe
The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing in a suit filed by Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states against the Federal Government, which seeks a restraining order to stop the full implementation of the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) until February 22.
Supreme Court Adjourns Suit Hearing Filed By Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara
The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing on Wednesday.
In a new development, nine states have filed to join the suit initially filed by Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara states.
The states are Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Sokoto states bringing the new total of plaintiffs to ten.
On the other hand, Edo and Bayelsa have filed to be joined as respondents.
The seven-man panel led by Justice John Okoro ordered them to amend their processes to be heard as one.
Meanwhile, pending hearing, the old order to suspend the ban of the now older 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes subsist.
Recall that the apex court had a few days ago, restrained the CBN from banning the old naira notes by from implementing the bank’s February 10 deadline for the swapping of the old naira notes with the new ones.
The judgement followed a motion ex-parte on behalf of three northern states Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, who on February 3rd filed a suit seeking to halt the implementation of the CBN’s policy.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on February 8, 2022, stopped the President Muhammadu Buahri alongside the CBN and commercial banks from interfering, suspending or extending the terminal date of February 10 for the expiration of the old naira notes.
The presidency, before last week Wednesday hearing, said that neither the government nor the CBN had taken a stand on the continued use of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes as legal tenders seeing that the case was still pending before the Supreme Court.
