IPOB: Court lifts IPOB Ban, Grants Kanu N8bn In Damages

On Thursday, Justice A. O. Onovo of the Enugu State High Court ruled that the South-East Governors’ Forum’s proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was unlawful, unconstitutional, and void.

IPOB activities were prohibited by the South-East Governors Forum, which former Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi headed. The Federal Government had also added the organization to its list of terrorist organizations.

Following this, IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu petitioned the court through his lawyer to have the proscription reversed.

According to him, IPOB was an organization “composed of citizens of Nigeria of the Igbo and other eastern Nigerian ethnic groups, professing the political opinion of self-determination. Kanu, therefore, asked the court to rule that IPOB’s proscription was unlawful.

He also asked the court to declare his “arrest and consequent detention and prosecution as illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amounts to infringement of the applicant’s fundamental rights”.

“Self-determination is not a crime and thus cannot be used as a basis to arrest, detain and prosecute the applicant,” he pleaded with the court.

Kanu sought damages in the sum of N8 billion from the defendants “for the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological trauma he was subjected to.”

Justice Onovo concurred with Kanu and declared IPOB’s proscription “unconstitutional and illegal” in his ruling on Thursday.

In addition, he mandated that the defendants provide him N8 billion in damages and issue a formal apology to him in newspapers.

Speaking to reporters soon after the ruling, Kanu’s lawyer, Ejimakor, said, “We are grateful that justice has prevailed over this matter since 2017. The court has reaffirmed the hopes of the common man in the judiciary. You have saved thousands of lives.”