BREAKING: Appeal Court Grants Lagos Request To Join Rivers’ Suit On VAT

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has approved Lagos State’s appeal to be joined as an interested party in the suit that stripped the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, of the authority to collect Value Added Tax, VAT.

iexclusive News Nigeria reports that the Appellate Court, in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel on Thursday, found that Lagos State had demonstrated that it “has a direct and substantial interest” in the matter through its Attorney-General.

As a result, it issued an order in which it joined Lagos State as the third respondent in the FIRS’s appeal to overturn the decision of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt that granted Rivers State the authority to collect VAT revenues within its territorial jurisdiction.

iexclusive News Nigeria gathered that the Court of Appeal ordered FIRS to serve the Attorney General of Lagos State with all necessary procedures in the appeal, according to the judgement read by the panel’s leader, Justice Haruna Tsammani.

It postponed the case’s next hearing to October 7, revealing that the case’s next hearing will be held in Port Harcourt.