The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a suit by 16 northern states, through which they had sought an order compelling the Federal Government to pay them about N7.039bn as compensation for some assets of the northern region taken over by the Federal Government in 1977.

The court, in a unanimous judgement, held that the northern states delayed in filing the suit, and as such had been caught by expiration of time.

This according to apex court was because the suit was filed outside the six years allowed under Section 7 (1) of the Limitation Law, CAP 122 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.

The lead judgement was prepared by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, but read on Friday by Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.

The apex court held that the plaintiffs ought to have filed the court action immediately after the Federal Government was said to have admitted its indebtedness them through a letter dated July 27, 1983.

She upheld the AGF's argument that the cause of action had been caught by the statute of limitation and thereby denying the court the jurisdictional powers to hear the case.

The court held, "The jurisdiction of this court has been effectively ousted the cause of action having expired after six years of its accrual, computed form July 27, 1983. Another way of saying it is that this action as currently constituted and initiated on February 22, 2011 is statute barred and therefore, the jurisdiction of this court has been effectively ousted by the operation of Section 7 (1)(e) of the Limitation Law, CAP 122 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.

"The ensuing conclusion is that this suit lacks competence and its hereby struck out. There is no order as to cost."

The 16 northern states had sued the Federal Government through the Attorney General of the Federation, alleging that the Federal Military Government forcefully took over the assets owned by the defunct Northern States Marketing Board, using Decree No. 29 of 1977.

The states are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

They claimed that, following the takeover of the assets, the then Supreme Military Council assured them that the Federal Government would pay for the assets of the NSMB and assets of other commodity boards so acquired.

According to them, the military government did not fulfil it's promise but that, the Federal Government, as at July 27, 1983 admitted owing them N10.3m which when converted using the prevailing exchanging rate (N150.00 to $1) was put at N3bn.

They further claimed that government owed them additional N3.9bn being the current equivalent of alleged undisputed claim of N13m being the value of some moveable properties and cotton store complexes taken over by the Federal Government.

The states exhibited various documents some of which were correspondences between them and the Federal Government.

They also tendered copies of demand notices where they threatened to go to court if the alleged debt was not liquidated. The last one was dated November 1, 2010.

The AGF had urged the court not to hear the suit having become statute barred by virtue of Section 7(1)(e) of the Limitation Act.

"Where the cause of action upon which the plaintiffs' action is predicted is a letter dated July 27 1983 and August 13, 1984 as stated in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the plaintiff's statement of claims dated February 17, 2011," the AGF argued in the preliminary objection filed by the AGF's office.

Justices Aloma Mukhtar, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, Muhammed Muntaka-Coomassie, Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta, Ariwoola, Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, who were also in the panel that heard the case, agreed with the lead judgment.