The Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara state governments have filed a lawsuit against the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government before the Supreme Court, seeking a restraining order to stop the full implementation of the cashless policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).The three Northern state governments in a motion ex-parte filed on their behalf by their lawyer, AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha, prayed the apex court to grant them an interim injunction stopping the Nigerian Government either by itself or acting through the CBN, the commercial banks or its agents from carrying out its plan of ending the February 10, 2023 timeframe within which the older versions of the redesigned naira bank notes will cease to be legal tender.Newsmen gathered that the plaintiffs in the suit are the three Attorneys-General and Commissioners of Justice of the three states, while the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is the sole respondent in the suit.The three state governments further cited the inadequacy of notice coupled with the haphazard manner in which the exercise is being carried out and the attendant hardship it is causing on Nigerians as their reason for the suit, pointing out that the Nigerian Government has also acknowledged the hardship Nigerians are going through because of the new CBN policy..They also argued that the 10-day extension by the Nigerian Government is still insufficient to address the challenges bedeviling the policy.The plaintiffs also filed a motion on notice to abridge the time within which the respondent may file and serve his Counter-Affidavit to the suit and an order for an accelerated hearing of the matter.
