Nasir El-Rufai, the governor
Via Biodun Busari
Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, and Yahaya Bello, the governor of Kogi State, have arrived at the Supreme Court to follow the progress of a lawsuit that their states have brought against the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding the Cashless Policy Regime.
Around 8:30 am, the two governors entered the courthouse accompanied by prominent government officials and supporters.
The execution of the Cashless Policy Regime put in place by the CBN is set to be challenged in court by the Federal Government and three states.
The matter was brought to court by the Northern governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, namely Nasir El-Rufai, Yahaya Bello and Bello Matawalle.
They aimed to prevent the FG and CBN from enacting the naira redesign policy, which would have rendered the existing denominations of N1,000, N500, and N200 null and void.
President Muhammadu Buhari's native state of Katsina successfully convinced the supreme court to let it join the other states in their appeal of the ruling.
Yet, Edo and Bayelsa submitted petitions to be included as defendants in the lawsuit, which was initially brought by three northern states (Kaduna, Kano, and Zamfara), and which at the time only named the Attorney-General of the Federation as a defendant.
As for its own case, Rivers State informed the supreme court that it intended expressly to contest the N5 million and N100 million withdrawal caps that the FG had established.
The seven-person panel, presided over by Judge Inyang Okoro, ordered an adjustment to the Originating Summons as a result of the states' joining the case.
Yahaya Bello and Nasir El-Rufai, the governors of the states of Kogi and Kaduna, respectively, were present in court to observe the proceedings.
The hearing for the lawsuit has been postponed until Wednesday.
Although declining to prolong the ex-parte injunction that prevented FG from implementing the new monetary policy that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had instituted, the court stated that it will consolidate all the cases.
The court did caution the parties, however, that since the matter had been submitted for decision, they were not to do anything that would influence the dispute at hand.