Outlawed group urges court to set aside proscription order

The pro-Biafra group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the proscription order made against it on Wednesday.

The group’s request is contained in an application filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja yesterday by its lawyer, Infeanyi Ejiofor.

The grounds on which IPOB is challenging the order proscribing it and declaring it an illegal body includes that the court, in making ex-parte order on Wednesday, acted without jurisdiction, because the order was granted against an entity unknown to law.

It accused the Attorney General of the Federation of suppressing facts on which the order was granted. It complained of being denied fair hearing.

The group argued that the order was unconstitutional, because it was made in violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right of its members to self-determination.

It added that its members’ right to self-determination is guaranteed under Article 20(1) of the Africa Charter on Human & 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.

IPOB further argued “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.

“”IPOB does not carry arms and has no history of arm struggle in the exercise of their constitutionally guarantee rights to self-determination.

“Prior to and during the military invasion of the South Eastern states, members of IPOB had never at any time resorted to arm struggle or engage in acts of violence capable of threatening the national security.

“The Federal High Court of Nigeria, Per Justice Binta Nyako of Court No 4, had in its Rulings delivered on the 1st day of March, 2017 held that the IPOB is not an unlawful organisation.

“The Ex parte application for the proscription of the IPOB and its activities in the South Eastern states pursuant to which the order was granted, was politically motivated, and will in essence amount to suppression of the wishes and aspirations of the indigenous people who are now being intimidated using the state force, for expressing their disenchantment with the administration that has relegated them to third class citizens.

“The hasty manner through which the process leading to the proscription of the Respondent’s activity and its declaration as a terrorist organisation was activated/initiated, shows a clear manifestation of high powered ethnic conspiracy against the respondent in particular and the Igbos in general.

“It started with the Arewa Youth Coalition Group’s declaration on the 24th August, 2017, that the respondent should be declared a terrorist organisation, among other far reaching terms, as part of their condition to suspend the quit notices given to Igbos and Southerners living in the North.

“It was in quick succession, followed by the military invasion of the South-East (a relatively peaceful region), their murderous attack in the home of the leader of the respondent, illegal declaration by the Nigerian military that a non-violent group such as the respondent is a terrorist organisation.

“And the speedy, but clandestine manner the Attorney General approached the court ex-parte, for an order proscribing the respondent’s activities and declaration as a terrorist organisation,” it said.

The post Outlawed group urges court to set aside proscription order appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.