A State High Court sitting in Enugu State on Thursday declared the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by the South-East Governors’ Forum as illegal, unconstitutional, and null and void.
The South-East Governors Forum, led by former Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi, banned IPOB activities in 2017. Three days later, the Federal Government designated IPOB as a terrorist organization.
However, IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, through his counsel, Barr. Aloy Ejimakor, petitioned the court to have the prescription reversed.
Kanu prayed the court to declare that IPOB’s proscription was illegal as it was an organization “composed of citizens of Nigeria of the Igbo and other eastern Nigerian ethnic groups, professing the political opinion of self-determination.”
He also prayed for the court to declare his “arrest and consequent detention and prosecution as illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, and amounting to infringement of the applicant’s fundamental rights.”
He further urged the court to make a declaration that “self-determination is not a crime and thus cannot be used as a basis to arrest, detain, and prosecute the applicant.”
He then prayed the court to compel the defendants to pay him N8bn in damages “for the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological trauma he was subjected to.”
In his ruling on Thursday, the presiding judge, Justice A. O. Onovo, agreed with Kanu and declared the IPOB proscription “unconstitutional and illegal.”
He also ordered the accused to pay him N8 billion in damages and to apologize publicly in newspapers.
Speaking to the press shortly after the judgement, Kanu’s lawyer, Ejimakor, said, “We are grateful that justice has prevailed over this matter since 2017. The court has reaffirmed the hopes of the common man in the judiciary. You have saved thousands of lives.”
