Judiciary
THE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Friday, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja, to set aside the ex-parte order that proscribed and declared it a terrorist organisation.
The group, in a motion it filed pursuant to Section 6(6) (1) of the 1999 constitution, as amended, maintained that the order which Justice Abdul Kafarati, acting chief judge of the high court, granted to the federal government on Wednesday, September 20, “was made without jurisdiction”, adding that it was “granted against an entity unknown to law”.
IPOB approached the court through its team of lawyers led by Ifeanyi Ejiofor. It will be recalled that the high court outlawed IPOB on the strength of an ex-parte motion Abubakar Malami, SAN, attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, filed on behalf of the government.
Specifically, Justice Kafafati declared as illegal, all activities of the group, particularly in the South-east and South-South regions of the country. He further restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any of the group’s activities”.
The motion was anchored on 13 grounds, first of which was that the proscription order was made without jurisdiction, “as the order was granted against an entity unknown to law.”
The grounds of the application read in part, “That the ex parte order made on the 20th day of September 2017 by this Honorable Court was made without jurisdiction, as the order was granted against an entity unknown to law.
“That there is a clear suppression and misrepresentation of facts in the Attorney General’s Affidavit evidence, pursuance to which the Order was granted.
“That the Order is unconstitutional, as it was made in clear violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right of the Indigenous People of Biafra to self determination; Article 20(1) of the Africa Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, now domesticated into our Law under (Ratification and Enforcement Act) (Cap 10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990; Right to fair hearing, Right to freedoms of expression, and the press and Rights to peaceful Assembly and Association; clearly provided for under Sections 36, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as (Amended) 2011.
“That a declaratory order cannot be made pursuant to an ex parte Application, without hearing from the party against whom the order was made.
“The Indigenous People of Biafra who are majorly of Igbo extraction, have no history of violence in the exercise of their right to self determination.”
