The Federal Government, on Tuesday, alleged that the proscribed Indegeniuos People of Biafra, IPOB, were behind recent cache of arms that were intercepted in Lagos by the Nigeria Customs Service, NSC. FG, while justfying its decision to apply for the IPOB to be outlawed, told the Federal High Court in Abuja that its investigations revealed that members of the group imported arms, comprising of pump action rifles, from Turkey.
It said the deal was brokered by a Turkish national that allegedly visited the ‘missing’ leader of the IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, shorty after he was released from detention. The Solicitor General of the Federation, Mr. Dayo Akpata who represented FG, urged the Acting Chief Judge of the high court, Justice Abdu Kafarati, to dismiss the motion IPOB filed to quash the proscription order. It will be recalled that Custom operatives had between January and September this year, intercepted about four containers laden with arms. 1,100 pieces of pump action rifles that were recovered at the Tin Can port, Apapa, Lagos, on September 19, brought the total of such arms that were seized since January this year, to 2, 671. Meantime, in a 23-paged counter-affidavit it filed in opposition to IPOB’s motion dated September 21, FG, told the court that the secessionist group “have been associated with violent activities”.
It said: “Furthermore, the leader of the Respondent/Applicant, one Nnamdi Kanu has been openly advocating for armed struggle via his speeches, calling Nigeria a zoo, threatening that Nigeria will burn if he is arrested, etc. The intent of the Respondent/Applicant from the onset is to cause confusion and plunge the country into crisis. “That Biafra is not a region in Nigeria and there are also no States known as Biafran States under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended. That in opposition to the depositions in paragraph 6 of the supporting affidavit, I am aware that the Respondent/Applicant’s activities have been targeted at causing a violent break up of Nigeria. That as a confirmation of the fact that the intentions of the Respondent/Applicant from the onset is to cause a violent breakdown of law and order in Nigeroa, Nnamdi Kanu openly solicted for arms to wage war against Nigeria at the World Igbo Congress held in California, USA in 2015. That a Turkish citizen, Abdulkadir Erkahraman, visited Nnamdi Kanu the leader of thr Respondent/Applicant in Isiama Afara, Umuahia, Abia State sometimes in July 2017, and has been canvassing support for the secessionist agenda of the Respondent/Applicant. He also admonished ‘Biafrans to rise up and fight a good fight for freedom’. That the Nigerian Customs Service had on four occassions this yeat intercepted pump action rifles totalling 2,671 illegally imported into the country from Turkey”. FG insisted that the proscription order was obtained based on events it said occurred mostly after Justice Binta Nyako before whom Kanu and four other pro-Biafran agitators are facing five-count treasonable felony charge, had earlier declined to declare IPOB a terrorist organisation. It argued that Justice Nyako did not however rule that IPOB was a lawful organisation.
“The court only ruled that there was no evidence before the court to show that the Respondent/Applicant is an unlawful or proscribed societu as at then in order to justify the count 3 in Charge No. FHC/Abj/CR/383/15 whic relates to managing an unlawful society”. It told the court that activities of IPOB “has been hampering effective policing of the South East region”, adding that the Inspector General of Police had directed his men to deal decisively with Biafra agitators who it said ordered closure of markets and restriction of movement in the South East to mark the Biafra Day celebration. More so, it alleged that IPOB members had on September 14, launched vicious attacks on police formations that resulted in the total destruction of Ariaria Police Divisional Headquarters in Aba, theft of police weaponry, attacks on police patrol teams. It said that a good number of police personnel have sustained varying degrees of injuries while one policeman died in the Aba attack, adding that a commercial bank was also attackes with its ATM machines damaged by IPOB members.
Aside its allegation that IPOB members in Oyigbo LGA of Rivers State had on September 12, mobilised and attacked some northerners in the area, FG further told the court that a police sergeant, Mr. Stephen Daniel and one Umar Mainasara, a shoe shiner, were killed by the attackers who its said carted away an AK 47 Rifle belonging to the slain policeman after they burnt two police vans. “That the Commissioner of Police in Abia State, Mr. Anthony Ogbizi, disclosed on 13th October, 2017 that patrol bombs, double-barrel gun were recovered from the residence of Nnamdi Kanu and that training of Biafra Secret Service members were still ongoing after the proscription of II OB. That a detailed report on the violent activities of members of the Respondent/Applicant against security personnel and other citizens as well as their inciting speeches (particularly by Nnamdi Kanu) as compiled by the Office of the National Security Adviser are attached herewith and marked as Exhibit FGN 8”, FG added in the counter-affidavit that was deposed to by one Ayuba Adam. More over, FG told the court that “the leader of Biafra Independent Movement, BIM, and founder of the renowned Movement for Actualisation of Soverign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Ralph Uwazuruike, attested to the violent conducts of IPOB members”. It said that Uwazuruike attested that the modus operandi of IPOB negates the principles of non-violence in the achievement of self-determination for Biafra independence and also expressed worry that the Nnamdi Kanu led IPOB always pretended to be non-violent but preached violence. “The Ex-parte Order proscribing the activities of the Respondent and declaring the Respondent a terrorist organization is prejudicial to the subsisting criminal charge/trial pending before His Lordship, Hon. Justice Binta Nyako of Court No. 4, Federal High Court, Abuja, in Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 Between F.R.N. V. Nnamdi Kanu & 4 Ors, wherein the Court had in the course of the proceedings, held that the Respondent is not an unlawful organization.
“The Military has in an officially approved ethnic cleansing exercise, presently going on in the South East, massacred over 200 (two hundred) members of unarmed and defenseless members of the Respondent, under their coded Operation Python Dance in the South East, including the invasion and unprovoked bloody attack in the home of Nnamdi Kanu, whose whereabouts has remained unknown, since their murderous attack in his home on the 14th day of September 2017”. Consequently, IPOB, maintained that the court “has the inherent powers to set aside its orders when either granted without jurisdiction or granted in error”. It said the Order was unconstitutional, as it was made in clear violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right of the Indigenous People of Biafra to self determination; Article 20(1) of the Africa Charter on Human & Peoples Rights, now domesticated into our Law under (Ratification and Enforcement Act) (Cap 10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990; Right to fair hearing, Right to freedoms of expression, and the press and Rights to peaceful Assembly and Association; clearly provided for under Sections 36, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as (Amended) 2011. It was IPOB’s contention that a declaratory order could not be made pursuant to an Ex-parte application, without hearing from the party against whom the order was made.
In a 40-paragraphed affidavit deposed to by one Prince Mandela Umegborogu, IPOB, told the court that its members are lawful and non-violent socio-ethnic pressure group, largely made up of Indigenous People of Igbo extraction, and of Igbo neighboring states of Biafra region/origin. “That as Indigenous People of the Igbo speaking states, and neighboring states of Biafran origin, they are a Community of individuals, and not registered as a registered as a legal entity. That the Respondent are merely a community of Indigenous People exercising their constitutionally guarantee right to self determination freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association”. It further told the court that the South Eastern States of the Country, largely made up of Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia and Ebony, have no history of violent crime, in recent times, before the soldiers were deployed to the South East on the Operation Python Dance. “That Police Authority has been in effective policing of the entire South Eastern States”. IPOB told the court that it is registered across many countries of the world, saying its activities have always been in conformity with the International Covenants and laws. It said that its members do not pose any threat to any country, adding that recently, its members residing in the United Kingdom and United States of America were granted permission to protest within a designated place in the ongoing United Nations Conference. IPOB also told the court that pictures (photographs) and video footages the AGF attached in the affidavit he used to secure the ex-parte order, “were all concocted and video/photo shopped to make it appear real, and do not represent the true images/impression of the Respondent/Applicant’s members”.
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