The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, affirmed the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as a terrorist organization.
In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel led by Justice Hamma Barka, the court affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which outlawed the IPOB.
The court maintained that it found no reason to set-aside the order the Federal Government got against the group.
It insisted that the Government, acted lawfully by proscribing the organization whose activities threatened the nation’s security and continued existence.
It further resolved all the issues against the IPOB and dismissed its appeal for want of merit.
Recall that the late former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati, had in a ruling he delivered on September 15, 2017, outlawed the activities of the IPOB in Nigeria.
The proscription order followed an ex-parte motion the former Attorney-General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, filed on behalf of the Federal Government.
Justice Kafafati declared as illegal, all activities of the group, particularly in the South East and South South geo-political zones of the country.
He further restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any of the group’s activities”.
The Judge directed the AGF to ensure that he published the proscription order in the official gazette, as well as in two national dailies.
Again, 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.
But dissatisfied with the decisions, the IPOB approached the appellate court to set them aside.
The group, in its appeal marked: FHC/CA/A/214/2018, which it filed through its team of lawyers led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr. Chukwuma-Machukwu Umeh, urged the court of appeal to set aside in its entirety, the ruling/final decision of the high court.
IPOB alleged that the then AGF suppressed and misrepresented facts in the affidavit evidence he tendered before the court, insisting that the proscription order was tantamount to declaring over 30million Nigerians of Igbo extraction as terrorists.