By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday adjourned the suit seeking the extension of the use of old Naira notes in the country as a legal tender.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had pegged Jan. 31 as deadline for the old notes of 1000, 500 and 200 to lose their status as legal tenders.
It later shifted the date till Feb. 10, a period is says will remain sacrosanct.
Governors of Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara States had approached the Supreme Court, seeking that the CBN from be restrained going ahead to withdraw legal tender status from the old notes.
The apex bank had late last year redesigned the notes to among other things fight inflation.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the apex bank to maintain status quo pending the Feb. 15 hearing, a directive the CBN said was not necessary as it insisted on Feb. 10 deadline.
The apex court, which heard the case on Wednesday, was filled to capacity with a retinue of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, other lawyers and the governors of Kaduna and Kogi states, Nasir El-Rufai and Yahaya Bello, respectively.
The proceedings began with Justice John Okoro leading a seven-man panel of justices.
He said the court should not lose sight of the case and its intention as it affects the suffering of Nigerians.
Lagos State, through its Attorney General, Moyosore Onigbanjo, also applied, seeking to be joined in the suit.
Bayelsa State, led by Damian Dodo, had also applied to be joined in the suit as a respondent. Similarly, Edo State applied to be joined as a respondent.
The panel fixed all the suits by ten states for hearing on Wednesday, February 22.
