Biafra: IPOB asks Appeal Court to cancel proscription order

Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has asked Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to suspend the enforcement of the order for its proscription issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja in September 2017.

The pro- Biafra group, acting through its counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, filed the motion for stay of execution of the proscription order with 19 grounds yesterday.

Part of the grounds on which the group anchored its application for stay of execution was that it had filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge the proscription order.
IPOB’s appeal which is marked CA/A/214/2018 has the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), as the sole defendant.

On September 20, 2017, the Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdu Kafarati, had in his ruling delivered, ordered the proscription of IPOB and designated it as a terrorist group, after listening to an ex parte application moved by the AGF.

But, in its motion filed before the same judge on September 22, 2017, IPOB contended through its lawyer, that the proscription order was unconstitutional.
The motion was opposed by the AGF.

Delivering judgment on the motion on January 18, 2018, Justice Kafarati affirmed his earlier order proscribing the group.

However, on March 1, 2018, IPOB filed a five-ground notice of appeal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja, challenging the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja, proscribing and designating it as a terrorist group.