Prominent Igbo lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has sued the federal government for discriminating against the South-East geopolitical zone in its July 5, appointment into the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Agbakoba, in the suit filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, said the federal government, on July 5, 2017, appointed nine persons into the NNPC Board but none of them was from the South-East.
The failure to appoint someone from the South-East, Agbakoba argued, was a demonstration of the federal government’s bias against the five south-eastern states – Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia.
He wants the court to make an order of perpetual injunction “restraining the Federal Government of Nigeria as represented by the 1st respondent from further violation of the Constitution and other laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, including the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act in the appointment of members of the Board of the 2nd respondent.”
Agbakoba said, “I want the honourable court to, in the interest of justice, enforce the fundamental right of freedom from discrimination of the entire Nigerians indigenous to the states in the South-East geopolitical Zone, comprising of Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia states, to afford every Nigerian equal opportunity, based on merit, in appointments to the board of the 2nd respondent.”