The Court of Appeal in Abuja has rejected an application filed by the detained leader of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, seeking the court’s leave to challenge the order that outlawed the group.
In a judgment, the Court of Appeal upheld the argument by lawyer to the Federal Government, Oyin Koleosho, that the application, which Kanu’s lawyer Alloy Ejimakor filed on behalf of the detainee, was inappropriate.
Kanu had, in the application, sought to be allowed to appeal, as an interested party, the January 18, 2018 ruling by Justice Abdu Kafarati 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.
It was part of Kanu’s contention 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 allowed 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) of which The Nation saw on June 12, a three-member panel of the appellate court held that it was inappropriate for Kanu to have filed his application directly at the court.
In the lead judgment, Justice Hamma Barka 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.
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