The Court of Appeal in Abuja has rejected an application submitted by the detained leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, asking for permission to challenge the order proscribing the group.
The Court of Appeal in a ruling had upheld the argument by lawyer to the federal government, Oyin Koleosho, that the application filed on behalf of Kanu by his lawyer, Alloy Ejimakor, was inappropriate.
Kanu had asked to be allowed to appeal, as an interested party, the January 18, 2018 judgement by Justice Abdu Kafarati (now late) of the Federal High Court, Abuja affirming his earlier ex-parte order of September 20, 2017 which proscribed IPOB and designated it a terrorist group.
Kanu had, however, argued 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 permitted to be part of a pending appeal filed by IPOB against the order proscribing it.
In the judgment delivered on May 30, a certified true copy (CTC) as attested to by The Nation on June 12, 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 report read as per The Nation.
Justice Barka, however, held that “In the instant case, it is apparent that no such leave was sought from the court below, thus, an affront to the provisions of Order 6 Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021.
“This knocks off the present application as being incompetent, not capable of being granted.
“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.”
Meanwhile, Kanu had earlier this week filed a contempt charge against the Director General, Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, over his alleged refusal to obey court orders.
Kanu, through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, filed Form 49 titled “Notice to Show Cause Why An Order of Committal Should Not Be Made,” at the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, on Monday.
The application, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, is dated and filed on June 10, 2024.
The embattled IPOB leader alleged that despite being served with the orders of the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako of a FHC in Abuja, made on May 20, Bichi had refused to comply with the said orders.
Kanu is currently standing trial for terrorism, having been arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in the year 2021.
