Court refuses to vacate order proscribing IPOB

A Federal High Court in Abuja has refused to vacate its earlier order proscribing the Indigenous People of Biafra and designating it a terrorist organisation.
Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Kafarati, in a judgment, dismissed IPOB’s application challenging the order.
The judge held that the memo written by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, upon which the President gave the approval, stands.
Kafarati, in addition, awarded a cost of N500,000 against the group.
The acting Chief Judge had on September 20, 2017, issued the proscription order following an ex parte application filed by Malami.
Unsatisfied with the decision, IPOB, through its counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, in an application, urged the court to set aside the proscription order.
But delivering judgment, Kafarati held that the Federal Government was right in issuing the order based on the activities of IPOB prelude to the proscription.
The judge held that IPOB, being a foreign registered organisation, could be prosecuted and punished in Nigeria, since it was in Nigeria and its members are Nigerians.
On Ejiofor’s position that the process through which the order was obtained was defective, as according to him, it was at variance with the provisions of the Terrorism Act, the acting CJ held that Section 21(a) gives the AGF powers to act on any issues relating to terrorism.
Also while stating that the applicant’s right to fair hearing had not been violated, Justice Kafarati held that Section 45(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that nothing in Sections 37, 38, 39, & 41 of the Constitution shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democracy.
The Federal Government, in the suit was represented by the Solicitor General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, while Ejiofor stood in for IPOB. Ejiofor, in his submission, had urged the court to vacate its order which proscribed IPOB and declared it a terrorist organisation.He premised his argument on the grounds that the process followed in obtaining the proscription order was defective.
Ejiofor said that the Terrorism Act is explicit and specific on who can give approval for an organisation to be proscribed, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari who the Act specifically empowered to approve the proscription order, did not give his approval as required by the law.