Court declares IPOB’s prohibition unlawful and grants Kanu N8 billion in damages

On Thursday, Justice A. O. Onovo of the Enugu State High Court declared that the Southeast Governors’ Forum’s 2017 proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was unlawful.

The governors, led by former Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, outlawed IPOB, which was started by Nnamdi Kanu. The Federal Government designated IPOB as a terrorist organisation around three days later.

Given that IPOB is a recognised organisation with members who are utilising their right to association, Kanu petitioned the court to have the prescription reversed.

The Federal Government and the governors of the Southeast are the respondents in this action.

Barr Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s special attorney, filed the lawsuit.

Kanu is requesting the following relief: “A declaration that the actual implementation of the Terrorism Prevention Act and the executive or administrative action of the respondents which directly led to the proscription of IPOB and its listing as a terrorist group, said IPOB being composed of Nigerian citizens of the Igbo and other Eastern Nigerian ethnic groups, professing the political opinion of self determination and the consequent arrest, detention and prosecution of Kanu as a member/leader of said IPOB, is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amounts to an infringement of the applicant’s fundamental right not to be subjected to any limitations or disabilities on the basis of his ethnicity as enshrined and guaranteed under Section 42 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution,

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“A statement stating that the petitioner, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, cannot be arrested, detained, or charged with a crime since self-determination is not a criminal.

“An order directing and obliging the respondents, individually or collectively, to publish the official letter(s) of apology that they have written to Kanu for the violation of his stated fundamental rights in three national dailies.

A monetary award made by the applicant against the respondents jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, property, and other damages the applicant suffered as a result of the respondents’ violations of their fundamental rights, is called “an order mandating and compelling the respondents to, jointly or severally, pay the sum of N8,000,000,000.00 (Eight Billion Naira) to Kanu.”

In giving the ruling, Justice A.O. Onovo concurred with the petitioner that self-determination is not illegal because Nigerian courts are bound by the African Charter.

According to him, this makes the proscription invalid.

In terms of money damages, the court awarded Kanu N8 billion in addition to an apology published in national newspapers. On the other hand, it rejected jurisdiction to halt Kanu’s criminal trial because it was pending before the Supreme Court.

The court was praised by Ejimakor for being the last bastion of hope for the coming man. He said, “We are appreciative that justice has been served in this case since 2017.” The court has upheld the average person’s hopes for the judiciary. Thousands of lives have been saved by you.