Plaintiffs from Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, and Sokoto join the case. Bayelsa and Edo join FG as defendants.
From Abuja, Ikechukwu Nnochiri
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court joined the states of Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, and Sokoto as plaintiffs in the lawsuit contesting the Federal Government's decision to stop accepting the N200, N500, and N1000 old Naira notes as legal tender in the nation.
The home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, Katsina, equally persuaded the apex court to allow it to join the other states to challenge the decision.
However, Edo and Bayelsa, filed motions to be joined as defendants in the suit that was initially filed by three northern states- Kaduna, Kano and Zamfara- which originally had only the Attorney-General of the Federation as the sole defendant in the matter.
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.