Proscription: Court Decides IPOB’s Fate Today

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja will today rule on the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

The Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati, will deliver the judgment in the suit seeking to void the proscription and declaration of IPOB, as a terrorist organisation.

The Pro-Biafra group had through its lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, approached the court challenging the ruling it delivered on September 20, 2017, which outlawed it on the strength of an ex-parte motion the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, filed on behalf of the government.

The court had declared as illegal, all activities of IPOB, particularly in the South-East and South-South regions of the country in the said ruling.

The Acting Chief Justice, who gave the ruling in chambers, further restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any of the group’s activities.”

The judge further directed the AGF to ensure that he published the order proscribing IPOB in the official gazette, as well as in two national dailies, an order FG had since complied with.

IPOB, however, in a motion it filed, insisted that the proscription order “was made without jurisdiction”, adding that it was “granted against an entity unknown to law.”

The group also queried the legal validity of the order, which it said was surreptitiously obtained by the Attorney-General.