The federal government has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit contesting Feb 10 deadline set by the CBN.
It claims that the Supreme Court does not have the authority to consider the case. Three states, Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, all in northern Nigeria and under the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, filed the lawsuit (APC).
According to the respondent, the lawsuit is just about CBN’s policy and not a disagreement between the federal and state governments.
It states that the lawsuit is consequently ineligible to be brought directly before the Supreme Court for resolution. It claims that the Federal High Court is where the lawsuit should have been filed.
Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), who was named as the only defendant on behalf of the federal government in the lawsuit, lodged a preliminary objection against it on Wednesday before the Supreme Court.
Hours before to Mr. Malami’s papers, the Supreme Court had approved the three state governments’ plea for an order temporarily blocking the CBN’s intention to phase out the usage of old currency notes on February 10th.
Neither the federal government nor the CBN has commented on their plan to comply with the ruling.