IPOB Rejects Judgment affirming it as Terrorist Group

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB has condemned the judgment of the Federal High Court of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, by Acting Chief Judge, Justice, Abdul Kafarati which affirmed it as terrorist group.

Media and publicity secretary of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful in a press release issued yesterday, and made available to THISDAY in Awka described the judgment as “wicked and reckless.”

Powerful said IPOB was a peaceful legal organisation which was registered in over 88 countries of the world, and known not to have engaged in violence before, yet its activities was proscribed by a Nigerian court.

“The upholding of its obnoxious order proscribing the activities of IPOB, when everybody knows that the organisation is peaceful and have not killed an ant, talk less of taking a human life is nothing short of judicial impunity, recklessness and raw wickedness.”

The group said it remained at a loss to understand how the court could have come to this conclusion in view of the fact there was no evidence whatsoever to indicate that it is an armed or violent group like the Fulani herdsmen.  

It said, “Simply put, a judge cannot be ignorant of the law and at the same time lacking in conscience. What Abdul-Kafarati has displayed, by upholding his originally flawed judgement is raw wickedness.

“He failed to address all the issues before him but rather chose to be selective.

The simple question which ordinary people have been asking all along is this; what activity or aspect of IPOB operations can be regarded as constituting a terrorist act?

“Can Abdul-Kafarati, the DSS or Attorney General’s office name one verifiable incident of breach of peace, murder, arson or rape- usually associated with their fellow Fulani herdsmen- that IPOB has ever been associated with?”

IPOB chided the judge, saying that instead of addressing the simple questions above, spent all his time outlining why tagging IPOB a terrorist organisation inside his chambers is legal.

“But that wasn’t the question before him for determination. How can you term an organisation a terrorist group when that group has not done anything remotely resembling a terrorist act. There is no recorded or verifiable instance of violence associated with IPOB, unless holding public rallies, right of assembly and association constitutes a terrorist act.”

IPOB said the judgement has reaffirmed once again that Nigerian judiciary and her entire legal system was the most corrupt in the world.

It charged that “The civilised world must rise up with one voice to condemn this outrage”, adding that when nationalists rose to fight colonialism, they never envisaged replacing it with something infinitely worse and more inhuman like what obtains in Nigeria today.