N7.3bn Refund: Supreme Court Quashes Northern States' Suit
BEVERLY HILLS, CA, June 27, (THEWILL) - The suit filed by the 15 Northern States seeking a refund of a whopping N7.3 billion, being outstanding value of the assets of the defunct Northern States Marketing Board (NSMB) forcefully taken over by the Federal Government, suffered a setback Friday as the Supreme Court quashed the suit.
This followed the decision by seven Supreme Court Justices, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, that the case was statute-barred, having being filed outside the time limit allowed by the Limitation Act for the recovery of such debt.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, the apex court ruled that the cause of action arose on July 27 1983 when the Federal Government acknowledged the debt.
Justice Peter-Odili therefore held that the suit filed by the 16 states on February 22, 2011, “was an action in futility the cause of action having expired after six years of its accrual computed from July 27, 1983.”
According to her, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear the suit has been effectively ousted by operation of section 7(1) (e) Limitation Act Cap 522 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990.
The court also upheld the objection of the Federal Government as argued by Mr. Ade-Okeaya Inneh (SAN), who urged the court to dismiss the suit because it had become statute barred.
‎It would be recalled that 16 of the 19 Northern States had invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court vide an originating summons asking the apex court to compel the Federal Government to pay them N7billion as outstanding value of the assets of the defunct NSMB.
The board was said to have been taken over by the Federal Government in 1977 from the then North-Western, North-Central, Kano, North-Eastern and Central-Western States.
The states which instituted the suit Include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara .
They however named the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as the sole defendant in the case.
They maintained that in 1977, the then Federal Military Government forcefully took over the assets of NSMB by virtue of Decree No. 29 of 1977, saying the then Supreme Military Council stated that the Federal Government would pay for the assets of the NSMB and the assets of any other commodity boards.
They noted that before the assets were transferred to the Federal Government, a valuation was carried out which put the total value of all the assets at N42 million.
“Out of the said N42 million, only N1.1 million was paid to the NSMB by the defendant leaving a balance of N40 million,” they however said, even as they put the cost of immovable assets and produce taken over at N11 million and N18 million respectively.
The states put the value of bags, tarpaulin and twine as well as cotton stores complexes allegedly taken over at N2 million. They added that as at July 27, 1983, the Federal Government admitted owing them N10.3 million which when converted using the prevailing exchanging rate (N150.00 to $1) was put at N3 billion.
Arguing that the exchange rate at the time the assets were taken over was 50k to one US dollar, whereas the dollar now hovers around N150.00, they further claimed that the Federal Government owed them additional N3.9 billion being the current equivalent of alleged undisputed claim of N13 million, said to be the value of some moveable properties and cotton store complexes taken over by the Federal Government.
They backed their claims with various documents including correspondence between them and the Federal Government during the court proceedings.
They also exhibited copies of demand notices where they threatened to go to court if the alleged debt was not liquidated with the last one dated 1st November 2010.
However, in the preliminary objection, Okeaya-Inneh said the northern governors' statement of claim was statute barred by virtue of section 7(1)(e) of the Limitation Act.
According to him, the cause of action upon which the plaintiffs' suit was predicated was a letter dated July 27, 1983 and August 13, 1984 in their statement of claim dated February 17, 2011.
''Since the plaintiffs instituted this action by way of civil summons on February 17, 2011 in consequence thereof, the said action is at variance with section 7 (1)( e) of the Limitation Act.
''Whenever a party's action is statute barred, the party would lose his right of action and lose the right of enforcement,'' he said.
In an eight paragraph affidavit in support of the defendant's notice of preliminary objection, the AGF said ''the plaintiffs' cause of action arose sometimes in 1983 and this action was instituted 28 years after the cause of action arose.”