The Court of Appeal, Abuja has confirmed the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist group.
In a unanimous decision by a three-part board led by Justice Hamma Barka, the appellate court affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which outlawed the IPOB.
The court held that it saw no reason to set-aside the order the Federal Government got against the group.
As indicated by the court, the FG acted legitimately by banishing the organization whose exercises undermined the country’s security and persistent existence.
It settled all the issues against the IPOB and dismissed its appeal for want of merit.
The late former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati, had in a ruling he conveyed on September 15, 2017, banned the activities of the IPOB in Nigeria.
The ban followed an ex-parte motion the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, documented on behalf of the Federal Government.
In particular, Justice Kafafati pronounced as unlawful, all activities of the group, especially in the South-east and South-South regions of the nation.
He further restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any of the group’s activities”.
The Judge ordered the AGF to guarantee that he published the proscription order in the official gazette, as well as in two national publications.
In a follow-up ruling on January 22, 2018, the court dismissed a motion IPOB filed to contend the legal validity of the banishment request, which it said was secretly got by the AGF.
Disappointed with the decisions, the IPOB approached the appellate court to set them aside.
The organization, in its appeal which it documented through its team of lawyers led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Chukwuma-Machukwu Umeh, encouraged the appellate court to set aside in its entirety, the final decision of the high court.
It claimed that the then AGF stifled and distorted facts in the oath proof he tabled before the court, keeping up with the fact that the banishment order was tantamount to declare over 30million Nigerians of Igbo extraction as terrorists.
