The Court of Appeal in Abuja has rejected an application by detained leader of the proscribed separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu seeking to be allowed to challenge the order proscribing the group.

In a judgment, the Court of Appeal upheld the argument by lawyer to the Federal Government, Oyin Koleosho, that the application filed for Kanu by his lawyer, Alloy Ejimakor, was inappropriate.

Kanu had, in the application, sought to be allowed to appeal, as an interested party, the January 18, 2018 ruling by Justice Abdu Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja (now late) affirming his earlier ex-parte order of September 20, 2017 proscribing IPOB and designating it a terrorist group.

It was part of Kanu’s contention that, since the Federal Government allegedly capitalised on the IPOB proscription order to charge him with belonging to and leading a terrorist group, he was qualified as an interested party, who should be allowed to part of a pending appeal filed by IPOB against the order proscribing it.

In the judgment delivered on May 30, a three member panel of the Court of Appeal held that it was inappropriate for Kanu to have filed his application directly at the appellate court.

Justice Hamma Barka, in the lead judgment, held that, as an applicant seeking leave to appeal as an interested party, Kanu ought to first file his application before the Federal High Court, Abuja, whose decision he sought to appeal.

“The consideration of all other issues canvased to my mind will amount to an academic exercise for which courts are enjoined not to embark upon, and for this singular reason, the application being incompetent is accordingly struck out,” the court held.

Upon an ex-parte motion by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), marked: FHC/AB)/CS/871/2017, Justice Kafarati had, in a ruling on September 20, 2017 ordered as follows:

*That an order declaring that the activities of the respondent (Indigenous People of Biafra) in any part of Nigeria, especially in the South east and South-South regions of Nigeria, either in groups or as individuals, amounts to acts of terrorism and illegality is granted.”

IPOB subsequently lodged an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja against the January 18, 2018 ruling.

It is the appeal, marked: CA/A/214/2018 that Kanu applied to be given permission to join as an interested party. (The Nation)

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