THE Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned till March 3, 2023 judgement on a suit filed by ten states asking it to restrain the federal government from fully implementing the naira redesign policy.
The judgement which will come next week Friday will be after Saturday’s presidential and federal legislative elections holding this Saturday.
The apex court had adjourned from February 15 to today (Wednesday) to allow it consolidate all cases on the matter emanating from nine more states of the federation seeking to be joined in the suit. Nine more states were joined as parties in the suit initially filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara State governments challenging the legality of the naira swap policy of the federal government.
A seven-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, the apex court joined the Attorneys-General of Katsina, Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti, Cross River and Sokoto States as co-plaintiffs, while the Attorneys-General of Edo and Bayelsa States were joined as co-respondents.
“All the suits adjourned until 3rd March for judgement,” the presiding justice of the Supreme Court, John Okoro, held at Wednesday’s sitting after hearing arguments for and against the suit.
Earlier in the proceedings, the seven-member panel of the court consolidated the separate suits filed by Abia and River states to challenge the new monetary policy of the federal government, popularly known as Naira swap.
The apex court had ordered that the 10 February deadline set for the ending of the validity of the old banknotes be suspended. It also ordered that the old N200, N500, and N1000 banknotes should circulate alongside their newly redesigned versions pending a further hearing in the case.
However, President Buhari, on February 16th directed in a national broadcast that only the old N200 notes would remain valid, while the old N500 and N1,000 currency notes had ceased to be legal tender.
