By Henry Okonkwo Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor is in court challenging the legality behind the Federa...
By Henry Okonkwo
Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor
is in court challenging the legality behind the Federal Government’s
proscription of the pro-Biafra group since September 2017.
In this interview, the IPOB’s lawyer alleged that some
governors have joined the fray to be vicious on arrested IPOB members in their
domain.
Ejiofor alleged that state governors, particularly Nyesom
Wike of Rivers State and Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, have seemingly sworn to be
ruthless on arrested IPOB members in their states.
According to him, both governors brazenly intimidate and
arm-twist judicial officials to truncate speedy hearing and release of arrested
IPOB members, so that they would spend longer times in police custody.
Ejiofor spoke on why IPOB’s proscription is a politically
motivated move to quieten the group’s call for self-determination, their formation of the ESN (Eastern Security
Network), giving an update on the case he filed against the government,
concerning the December 2019 havoc that was unleashed on him by security forces
at his hometown in Oraifite, Anambra State. Excerpt:
As IPOB lawyer,
you’re involved in the court processes of securing the release of IPOB members
locked up in various correctional facilities across the country. How has that
experience been for you and for your chamber?
It has been a very hectic experience indeed. I have been
exposed to life threatening situations in the discharge of my professional
services as a lawyer. An example is the carnage that was unleashed in my house
on the 2nd of December 2019 by agents of the state. They burnt down the entire structure
in my house and killed people. These are unwarranted because I have never in
the course of discharge of my professional responsibilities detoured from my
instincts. I have been guided at all times by dictates of our ethics. So, we have been exposed to a number of risks in
this course. Some judges especially at the state level are afraid because they
get threatened for showing interest in looking into our cases. And this has
been our greatest undoing. States like Imo and Rivers are principally where the
states’ executives are openly threatening judges, judicial officers by their
word of mouth, and conduct towards IPOB matters. When IPOB members are arrested
and detained, and taken to court. But when we get to court we are faced with
timorous judicial officers who would not even listen to our arguments. But that
notwithstanding, we have been steady and consistent in the defense of humanity
because we are fully aware that IPOB is not a terrorist organization because
they are operating within the confines of the law. And that is my major
determinant factor. I have defended IPOB in virtually all courts across the
Southeast and South-south, and none have been convicted for any offence
bothering on terrorism and the other bogus charges filed against them. I win
the cases and release them in their numbers through judicial process because I
know that they are operating within the confines of the law, and exercising
their rights for self-determination as provided in the constitution.
Can you give examples
of how these state executives manipulate judicial officers in court cases
involving IPOB members?
Yes! I can give you a classical example of the state’s
intervention of judicial process particularly as it affects matters concerning
the IPOB. Early last year, 2020 in Rivers State, way before the EndSARS
protest, some people were arrested, detained and taken to court for frivolous
charges of being terrorists and belonging to IPOB. We were ready to defend them
at the courts, but Governor Wike ensured that no judicial officer treated the
matter. Also IPOB members are arrested, driven to Abuja where they are locked
up and tortured at the behest of the Imo State governor, (Hope Uzodimma). The
two states are where state governors are openly canvassing and giving directives
to the judicial officers. The two governors have instructed their state’s
judiciary not to entertain matters affecting IPOB because they want to deal
ruthlessly with the IPOB members. The tension that was raised by the military
inversion in Orlu was instigated by the state governor, Hope Uzodimma. He
invited the police and army to come and arrest IPOB members. But where are
these security officials when bandits keep unleashing mayhem and terror in the
northern states. They’ll rather rush down into Imo State to arrest our
brothers, molest our mothers and sisters and then subject some of them to rape.
In an interview aired
on AIT a few weeks ago, the Federal Government through the Minister of
Information, Lai Mohammed, explained the proscription of IPOB, and why the FG
would not proscribe killer herdsmen. In his comparison, the minister likened
bandits as various gangs of ‘super-armed criminals’ that the government can
trace and deal with, but argued that ‘IPOB is a group that has come together,
formed an army to challenge the sovereignty of Nigeria’. How do you react to
this minister’s explanation?
It is really shameful
how this present Federal Government romances and pampers terrorists. Why has
this Federal Government never agreed
that these people carrying AK-47 and killing innocent people are terrorists.
This Bubari-led government has shied away from calling them terrorists. Instead
they have branded these blood-thirsty gangs with different nomenclature like
ISWAP, ANSARU, bandits, herdsmen, Miyetti Allah and others. There is no sane
person that would in any manner try to liken the operations of Boko Haram to
IPOB. Bandits go about killing innocent people, while IPOB are merely
advocating for their rights as provided by the constitution. They are merely
insisting that the authorities should conduct a referendum. You don’t see them
armed with guns. You only see them with flags. So, how can you tell me now that
those people who are merely moving around with flags are more dangerous that
those moving with AK-47 and other sophisticated firearms, who go to our farms
to rape, maim, murder and kidnap on daily basis? It is a government that
thrives on hypocrisy, falsehood and all forms of terrible and condemnable
practices that would have the impetus to start comparing IPOB to Fulani
herdsmen. It is unheard of. In a civilized society, where the law takes
precedent, someone like Lai Mohammed shouldn’t be in a government position
because his position in government demands that you’re under constitutional
oath to always say what is the truth and nothing more, and to inform the public
appropriately. As a minister of information, you are not sworn to office to go
and start lying to the public, and fabricating lies. Hardly would Lai Mohammed
come on the microphone without you hearing all sorts of rubbish and lies that
he is telling the world. How can a sane person come in public to start
comparing IPOB with the herdsmen/ Boko Haram? Even you asking me this question
should understand the huge absurdity. Have you heard of IPOB killing or
kidnapping or raping people at their farms. These are some of the reasons IPOB
would keep insisting on a referendum because the system has inevitably fallen.
We are obviously at the brink of collapse. It is unfortunate that he says these
lies on media platforms and journalists seem cowed to probe deeper and expose
his lies and propaganda.
Nnamdi Kanu’s
announcement of the formation of ESN on December 12, 2020, was a move that
raised so much dust in Nigeria. Many people, especially government officials,
tagged it a regional army and used that to further justify the proscription of
IPOB. What is your take on this?
ESN is a child of destiny. We all know what led to the
unveiling of ESN. Before now it has been a common story and a common happening
that our farms have been turned to a place where cases of rape, killings,
torture and kidnapping keep happening. And when it became obvious that the
government was nonchalant because they were grossly compromised. We had to
improvise a solution to our problem. That was why Mazi Nnamdi Kanu set up the
ESN. You cannot see ESN on the road chasing people or see them carrying guns.
People don’t even know who they are because they live in the forests and the
bushes to give protection to our brothers and sisters who go to their farms.
Without them being there they cannot go to their farms. Without ESN people were
scared to go to their farms. So, ESN was set up for the purpose of securing the
people from killers and bandits. We had a situation where the security agencies
were no longer helping. The military, police and SSS were all there yet we keep
recording cases of killings every day. We see heavily armed Fulani herdsmen
moving around the forests and farms on daily basis, killing and raping anyone
that dared to question them. So, what I’m saying is that, to the best of my
knowledge and from all indices available ESN has come to stay. The operations
of ESN in the bush are never in any way connected with the activities of the
IPOB. ESN is not in the bush to agitate for Biafra freedom or referendum. They
are there for the purpose of protecting the lives of their people. When the
police, military fail to protect the people, what do you want us to do? This
Fulani-led government has an agenda to bring in these murderers from across the African forests, and if not
for the advent of ESN, the situation could have been worse than what we have
now. And there is no way you can connect the activities of ESN with IPOB. I
want you to get it very clear. ESN are not in the bush for Biafra’s
independence, they are in the bush to provide security where the state has
failed. I want you to understand the distinction between the activities of ESN
and IPOB. And to bring it closer, IPOB are lawful people who operate within the
confines of the law. You can’t see them in the bush or on the roads moving
around with machetes or a weapon of any kind. I have convinced the court and it
was ruled in court that IPOB operations do not fall within the threshold of
unlawful organization because of the way their activities go. So, when the
Federal Government secretly went to the Federal High Court to obtain an order
through the backdoor to proscribe IPOB, it was politically motivated and we are
still in court to challenge it. And you know the Nigerian system, once the
state is involved in a matter, they would keep on adjourning it endlessly.
What do you mean that
IPOB’s quest for self-determination is backed by law?
What IPOB is doing is called agitation for
self-determination. And it is a right provided in the African Charter on Human
and Peoples’ Rights. This law made right to self-determination sacrosanct and
inalienable. And that African charter has already been domesticated into our
law. It became part of our law under Cap 90 of LFN (Laws of the Federation of
Nigeria). So, when these laws are being exercised, you attack and tag the
people as terrorists? The state cannot in any way whittle down the effects of
this constitution. Also note that even in their quest to ensure that they use
illegal court order to stop the agitations for Biafra and tagged IPOB as
terrorists, they forgot that there are exceptions to the threshold of
activities that can be qualified as terrorism, succinctly spelt out in the
constitution. So, the bedrock of my argument is still at the Court of Appeal
till today. In their haste to undo IPOB they turned the law up-side-down. IPOB
are people exercising their constitutional rights. That is why I have done
their cases in almost all the courts in Abuja, in the Southeast and South-south,
and the Federal Government has not recorded a win in any of these
frivolous charges against IPOB. Not one! Quote me correctly. Yet they keep
arresting innocent and unarmed IPOB members on a daily basis. The law is there,
but it is unfortunate that we are in a system that is being run by a cabal.
What’s the update on
your lawsuit against the Federal
Government in the December 2019
destruction that ensued at your hometown, Oraifite?
The case is still on. The judge has been transferred to
Ebonyi State, so a new judge is coming to take over. We are looking to conclude
it on the 12th of May. I am not afraid because I still have full confidence in
the judicial process, and competence of the judge that will handle the case.
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