
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the order proscribing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organization.
In a unanimous decision on Thursday by a three-member panel led by Justice Hamma Barka, the appellate court affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja which outlawed IPOB, saying it found no reason to set aside the order secured by the Federal Government against the group.
The court further held that the Federal Government acted lawfully by proscribing IPOB whose activities, it said, threatened the country’s security and continued existence.
It resolved all the issues against IPOB and dismissed its appeal for want of merit.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had, in a ruling delivered by Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati on September 15, 2017, outlawed the activities of IPOB in Nigeria following an ex-parte motion filed by the then Attorney-General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on behalf of the Federal Government.
Justice Kafafati specifically declared as illegal all IPOB activities, particularly in the South-East and South-South regions of the country, even as he restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any of the group’s activities”.
Justice Kafafati also directed the AGF to ensure the publication of the proscription order in the official gazette and in two national dailies.
IPOB filed a motion challenging the legal validity of the proscription order which, it claimed, was surreptitiously obtained by the AGF. However, the court dismissed the motion in a follow-up ruling on January 22, 2018.
IPOB was, however, dissatisfied with these decisions and approached the Appeal Court to set them aside.
In an appeal it filed through its team of lawyers led by Chukwuma-Machukwu Umeh (SAN), marked: FHC/CA/A/214/2018, IPOB asked the Appeal Court to set aside in its entirety the ruling/final decision of the high court. It alleged that the then AGF suppressed and misrepresented facts in the affidavit evidence he tendered before the court, maintaining that the proscription order was tantamount to declaring over 30 million Nigerians of Igbo extraction as terrorists.