Biafra: Stop defending yourself on the pages of newspapers – IPOB tells FG

IPOB tells FG to defend itself in court.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the Federal Government of seeking to frustrate its fundamental human rights enforcement suit in court.

The seccessionist group said this in a statement on Monday, while reacting to the application filed by the government at the community court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), challenging the fundamental rights suit before the court.

It would be recalled that the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had in 2016 filed an $800m compensation suit at the court against the federal government over what he described as”unlawful” arrest and detention in 2015.

But the government through its counsel, Maimuna Shiru, accused Kanu of flouting the bail granted him by the Federal High Court in Abuja where he is facing trial of treasonable felony, thereby, urged the court to quash the suit.

However, IPOB alleged that the federal government had resorted to “blackmail, cheap lies and misinformation” in the case.

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“The case of abuse of fundamental human rights by the Buhari regime brought by the leader of IPOB Mazi Nnamdi Kanu at the ECOWAS court has been pending for two years, with the government employing all manner of delay tactics to frustrate the case.

“Now they are holding Nnamdi Kanu in their custody, having denied such publicly, they have finally woken up to ask the court to dismiss the charges against them.

“It will be fair to assume, going by the antics of this government, that their primary reason for the raid on the home of the IPOB leader, was to remove him from circulation and truncate all legal matters involving him,” the group said.

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It added that “The government should stop running to the pages of newspapers to conduct litigation and prosecution, they should come to the law court to defend their record.”

“Let the strength of their evidence speak for them rather than relying on cheap propaganda. Cases are won and lost in the law courts not on the pages of newspapers.

The proscribed group said further that the Nigerian Army should be responsible for producing their leader in court.

“As long as Nigerian army extra-judicially invaded the home of an unarmed man without court warrant, they are responsible for producing him in court,” the group stated.