Deborah Onyofufeke
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday granted the prayer request of South-East groups to join in the referendum motion on notice filed by interested parties to be joined in a suit filed by the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG).
The Court granted leave to South-East groups seeking a referendum for an independent state of Biafra
The judge, therefore, joined the parties as 6, 7and 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 defendants respectively.
The judge also gave the applicants 14 days to file and serve amended processes on the defendants.
The matter was adjourned to October 20, 2022, for mention.
The Igbo groups’ lead counsel, Victor Onwaremadu, while addressing journalists said, “My prayer is that they should allow the citizens of this country to conduct a referendum to determine whether they will continue in this country as an entity or whether they will go on their separate way. That is our main prayer in this suit.
“The Northerners are here, the Westerners are here and all the regions and my Lord accepted the application to join in the suit.”
The lead counsel for the Ijaw people, Temidie Peter-Great, while addressing the press stated that the Ijaw nation, represented by the Ijaw National Congress has also filed an application to be joined in the suit as co-defendants
He stated the reason for the joinder to be that “The Ijaw nation has never been and can never be part of the Biafran Republic
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“If there is any Republic, we should have and are entitled to our Republic and not the Biafran Republic, so we need to be joined to assert our territories that have been forcefully incorporated into the Biafran man
“Yes our Interests are similar, but we are saying that but we are saying that we are independent of Biafra,” said Peter-Great
Recall that a suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/538/2021, was filed in June 2021 by the plaintiffs and leaders of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), including Nastura Ashir Shariff, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, Balarabe Rufa’i and Aminu Adam.
They joined the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and the National Assembly as defendants.
