Rivers State Government has filed a suit with the Supreme Court, asking the apex court to set aside the “maintain status quo” order given last week by the Court of Appeal to enable him implement the state law which empowers it to collect the VAT.
The Court of Appeal last week ruled that all parties in the VAT case stay action pending the determination of the prayer by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which sought to upturn the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Rivers endorsing the collection of the tax by the state government.
The Rivers State Government asked the Supreme Court to reverse the September 10 order by the Court of Appeal directing parties in the dispute over the administration of VAT to maintain status quo ante bellum.
Rivers, in a notice of appeal filed in the name of its attorney general, also wants the Supreme Court to order the Court of Appeal to assemble a separate panel to hear the appeal, marked: CA/PH/282/2021 filed against the earlier judgment of the Federal High Court, Port-Harcourt, by the FIRS.
In the notice of appeal filed for Rivers by a legal team, led by Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), the appellant raised 10 grounds in support of its prayers.
Rivers expressed dissatisfaction with the decision of the Appeal Court “directing parties to maintain status quo, that is, to restore parties to the status quo that existed before the judgment of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt division in suit: FHC/PH/CS/149/2020.”
According to the State, the Appeal Court Justices, who gave the September 10 order, erred in law when they relied on Section 6(6) of the Constitution and the court’s inherent jurisdiction to order parties to maintain status quo, “which they identified as restoring the parties to the position they were before the judgment of the Federal High Court .”
