A Plateau State High Court 17 has ruled that a Hausa person born and raised in Jos North Local Government Area is an indigene of the area.

Justice C. Donglong gave the ruling while delivering judgment in a suit filed by two applicants — Fatima Baba Akawu, 1st claimant, and Baba Alhaji Akawu, 2nd claimant — against Jos North LGA over the denial of an indigene certificate to the 1st claimant.

The applicants had approached the court to determine on four issues including whether the 1st claimant, by virtue of her birth in Jos North LGA to a father who is a bona fide indigene of that area, is entitled to be recognized as an indigene and to be issued a Certificate of Indigene, notwithstanding her Hausa ethnic origin.

Whether the defendant’s denial of the 1st claimant’s application for a Certificate of Indigene, whilst simultaneously issuing a Residential Certificate to her and a Certificate of Indigene to one Dung Bot of Berom ethnic origin on the same date, constitutes discriminatory practice unconstitutional under Sections 42(1),42(2), 15(2) and (5), 17(1), (2)(a) and (3)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Articles 2 and 3 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Whether the 2nd Claimant’s status as a bona fide indigene of Jos North LGA and a former Member of the House of Representatives, representing Jos North LGA in the National Assembly in 1983, entitles his offspring, including the 1st claimant, to be issued Certificates of Indigene of Jos North LGA.

Whether the instrument titled “Residential Certificate” issued to the 1st Claimant is a recognised or valid instrument under Nigerian law and whether it has any legal basis or effect in determining her entitlement to government opportunities or benefits reserved for indigenes of Jos North LGA.

Delivering judgement on Tuesday, Justice Donglong granted all the applicants’ prayers.

He said, “Pursuant to a careful and diligent consideration of all the processes before this court, the uncontroverted affidavit evidence placed before this court by the Claimants, the documentary exhibits attached thereto

and the Written Address filed in support of the Originating Summons and having resolved all four (4) issues for determination in favour of the claimants, I am of the firm and considered opinion that this Originating Summons is meritorious and ought to be granted.

“This court is particularly moved by the constitutional imperative to protect every Nigerian citizen’s right to freedom from discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin and the circumstances of birth. The defendant’s conduct, by issuing a Residential Certificate to the 1st claimant, a Hausa by ethnic origin, while issuing a Certificate of Indigene to Dung Bot of the Berom ethnic origin, both on the same date for the same application is a reprehensible act of ethnic discrimination that is inconsistent to the letter and spirit o f the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“This court, as admonished by the Supreme Court in ANZAKU V. GOVERNOR OF NASSARAWA STATE (Supra), rises as the occasion demands to ensure that the constitutional rights of the individual are never trampled upon.”

The judge further declared that, “ by virtue of the 2nd claimant’s status as a bona fide indigene of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State and the constitutional provisions of Section 25(1)(a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), his biological children, including the 1st claimant, who were born and raised in Jos North Local Government Area, are entitled to be recognized as indigenes of Jos North LGA of Plateau State and to be issued Certificate of Indigene accordingly.

“AN ORDER of Perpetual Injunction is hereby granted restraining the defendant, whether by herself, her privies, agents, or delegates, from further issuing or continuing to issue Residential Certificates to any person as a substitute for a Certificate of Indigene, same being unknown to law, ultra vires, null and void.” (Daily Trust News)

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