BIAFRA : begs Appeal Court to suspend enforcement of proscription order

 

The Indigenous People of Biafra has begged the 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.

IPOB, through its lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, filed the motion for stay of execution of the proscription order with 19 grounds on Tuesday.

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.

The group’s appeal which is marked CA/A/214/2018 has the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), as the sole defendant.

The Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdu Kafarati, had in his ruling delivered on September 20, 2017, ordered the proscription of IPOB and designated it as a terrorist group.

This followed an ex parte application 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.

But 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.