A three-member panel in the Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved its judgment in the case filed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) contesting the proscription as a terrorist organization by the Federal Government.
Justice Hamma Barka, who led the panel set the date for judgment after both parties presented their final arguments on Thursday.
Mr. Oyilade Koleosho from the Federal Ministry of Justice represented the government, while IPOB’s legal team was led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Chukwuma-Machukwu Umeh.
IPOB is seeking to overturn a 2017 ruling by the late Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati, that classified its activities as illegal and designated the group as a terrorist organization.
IPOB’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who remains detained, had also applied to join the appeal as an interested party in the case, marked FHC/CA/A/214/2018.
The proscription order was initially filed as an ex-parte motion filed by former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, on behalf of the Federal Government, resulting in the declaration of IPOB’s activities as unlawful, particularly in the South-East and South-South regions.
Justice Abdu-Kafarati’s ruling also mandated the Attorney-General to publicize the proscription in Nigeria’s official gazette and two national newspapers.
In a follow-up ruling on January 22, 2018, the court dismissed a motion IPOB filed to challenge the legal validity of the proscription order, which it said was surreptitiously obtained by the AGF.
IPOB had alleged that the former AGF suppressed and misrepresented facts in the affidavit evidence he tendered before the court, adding that the proscription order was tantamount to declaring over 30 million Nigerians of Igbo extraction as terrorists.
While dismissing the motion, Justice Abdu-Kafarati said that IPOB constituted a threat to national security. He also rejected the argument that the group, not being a registered entity in Nigeria, could not be validly sued by the FG.
The court maintained that the fact that IPOB claimed that it was registered in over 40 countries in the world aside Nigeria, did not exculpate it from legal liabilities if it was found to have by its activities, violated any law in Nigeria.
However, in its five grounds of appeal, IPOB contended that Justice Abdu-Kafarati erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice, when he ruled that the mandatory statutory condition requiring President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval under Section 2 (1) (C) of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act, 2013, was satisfied, on the authority of a Memo the AGF issued on September 15, 2017.
It told the appellate court that the lower court Judge failed to evaluate, consider or mention in his rulings, affidavit evidence that was tendered to establish that IPOB was not a violent organisation.
While urging the appellate court to allow the appeal, IPOB’s lawyer, Umeh, SAN, argued that the organization was denied fair hearing.
FG’s lawyer, Koleosho, who denied the allegation, prayed the appellate court to dismiss the appeal.
After it had listened to both sides, the Appeal Court panel said it would communicate the judgement date to the parties.
