A three-member Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Hamma Barka, sitting in Abuja on Thursday upheld the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organization.
The appellate court, in a unanimous decision, upheld the Federal High Court in Abuja’s judgment, which banned the group.
The court ruled that it found no justification to overturn the order obtained by the Federal Government against the group.
It also held that the federal government acted within the law by prescribing the organization, whose activities posed a threat to the country’s security and its very existence.
The court resolved all the issues against the IPOB and dismissed its appeal for lack of merit.
Persecondnews recalls that the late former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati, delivered a ruling on September 15, 2017, that effectively outlawed the activities of the IPOB in Nigeria.
The proscription order was issued following an ex-parte motion filed by the then Attorney-General of the Federation(AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) on behalf of the Federal Government.
Specifically, Justice Kafafati declared all activities of the IPOB, particularly in the South-East and South-South regions, as illegal.
He further restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any of the group’s activities.”
Justice Kafafati ordered the AGF to publish the proscription order in the official gazette and in at least two national newspapers.
In a subsequent ruling on January 22, 2018, the court rejected IPOB’s motion challenging the validity of the proscription order, which the group claimed was secretly obtained by the AGF.
The IPOB, unhappy with the rulings, appealed to the Court of Appeal to overturn the decisions.
The group appealed the ruling, filing a motion marked FHC/CA/A/214/2018 through their legal team, led by Mr. Chukwuma-Machukwu Umeh(SAN), which urged the appellate court to overturn the high court’s decision in its entirety.
It alleged that the former AGF distorted and concealed facts in the affidavit evidence presented to the court, arguing that the proscription order effectively labeled over 30 million Nigerians of Igbo descent as terrorists.
Persecondnews recalls that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, was arrested in Kenya on June 27, 2021, and subsequently extradited to Nigeria, a process referred to as “rendition”.
Since his return to Nigeria, Kanu has been in the custody of the DSS, facing trial on charges of treason, terrorism, and incitement, among others.
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