•Adjourns case till November 21
•Ejiofor accuses FG of deliberate ploy to truncate proceedings, says they’re on the run
By Chukwuemeka Chimerue || For Biafra Writers
October 11, 2017
ABUJA— Hearing on the fundamental rights violation suit lodged at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, sitting in Abuja, by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, through his legal counsel, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, again, suffered a setback following the absence of the respondent’s counsel at the Court, yesterday.
Despite due service of the Hearing Notice on the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, before the Tuesday’s hearing, his counsel was nowhere to be found close to the court.
However, a supposed Senior State Counsel, Mr. Abdullahi Abubakar, who announced appearance for the Attorney General, informed the court that he had no mandate of his principal(AGF) to proceed with the hearing, and consequently asked for a stand down to 1pm to enable the Solicitor General conclude on an unknown case he was handling at the Supreme Court in order to seek for his approval to represent him in the case.
At 1pm the matter was stood down at their request, the hearing still could not continue due to the failure of the counsel to the AGF, assigned to handle the matter, in appearing at the court.
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Abubakar, however, pleaded for an adjournment to enable the AGF put his house together, in order to make himself available at the next sitting but this motion was vehemently opposed by the Applicant’s counsel, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
In his counter motion, Ejiofor who asked the court to compel the Federal government to pay a sum of N2 million, accused the latter of “deliberately delaying the matter.”
Mr. Abubakar, however, argued that the previous adjournment on the matter was not at the instance of the respondent but based on a request from the court.
Although, the regional court presided over by a three-man panel of judges headed by Honourable Justice Hemeye Mahdmadane reluctantly granted the FG an adjournment after a heated argument, however, deferred further consideration on Ejiofor’s application for the cost of N2 million to the next adjourned date.
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The court thereafter, adjourned the case till November 21 for continued hearing of the application and the determination of the motion for the award of costs and/or compensatory damages against the Federal government.
Reacting however, after the court session, Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Esq, restated his belief that the Federal government was deliberately delaying the matter using one irrational excuse or the other as a cover-up.
He said, “It is pertinent to inform the world that the Solicitor General of the Federation has been in the practice of asking for an adjournment in this suit any time it comes up for hearing.
“At the penultimate court session, the matter came up for hearing, he routed a letter to the Office of the Registrar of the ECOWAS Court, requesting for adjournment, reason being that he was to appear before a Municipal Court in Nigeria, an application which the court reluctantly granted, though not without cautioning the Solicitor General to be more diligent in defending the suit.
“Since the Federal government’s preliminary objection, challenging the competency of the suit was struck out by the Community Court, the government has been adopting all forms of delay tactics to frustrate the hearing of the Suit.
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“Our findings now revealed that the Solicitor General at whose instance today’s adjournment was granted never appeared at the Supreme Court today.
“When the deliberate ploy to truncate the proceedings relying on flimsy excuses for adjournment is juxtaposed with the hurried manner the Federal government obtained the reprehensible ex-parte order of the court proscribing IPOB and designating same as a terrorist group, the manifest conspiracy and bad intentions will be exposed the more.
“Now the suit has been adjourned to the 21st day of November, 2017 for definite hearing, it is our hope, that neither the Attorney General of the Federation nor his Solicitor General will be appearing before the Supreme Court on that day.
“In a society with track records of impunity and lack of respect for judicial institutions, anything goes.
“What we are asking for is justice before the regional court and nothing more. Federal Government should be bold enough to defend the inactions of their security agents. USD$800 million compensatory damages we are asking for in this Suit is not too big a cost that can’t be afforded by the government on account of the gross violation of my client’s fundamental rights.”
The Biafra Times
Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah
Contact us: [email protected]
Did any one seriously think that the Hausa Fulani controlled Federal government of the zoo called Nigerian will show up in court ? These fools in top hat know full wel that they have no iota of defence,hence they keep stalling and absenting from court appearance with stupid excuses ( lies) with the hope that the matter could be abandoned. Hello ? It won't . You have another chance to appear in court on 21 November, and you must appear whether you like it or not !
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