Aloy Ejimakor, lead counsel for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has called on the Nigerian Presidency, Army, Police, and public to cease labeling IPOB as a terrorist organization.
Ejimakor emphasized that labeling IPOB as a terrorist group is defamatory and prejudicial, and warned that such actions would be met with “muscular litigation and other lawful measures.”
This stance is based on a subsisting judgment from a High Court in Nigeria, which ruled that the proscription and declaration of IPOB as a terrorist organization by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari was illegal, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s Legal Team is under firm instructions from our client to issue this final warning to all persons and institutions still referring to IPOB as a terrorist organization,” Ejimakor stated.
“Henceforth, any further reference to IPOB as a terrorist organization will be met and countervailed with muscular litigation and other lawful measures, regardless of the entity involved.”
Ejimakor pointed out that this High Court judgment mandates compliance, insisting that IPOB should no longer be referred to as a terrorist organization.
He also highlighted the lack of evidence linking IPOB to any terrorist activities, noting that since the group’s proscription in 2017, no member has been convicted of any terrorist act despite numerous arrests, abductions, torture, false flag operations, and extrajudicial killings allegedly committed against its members.
He concluded with a demand that the general public, including the Presidency, the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, and media houses, immediately cease attaching such defamatory and prejudicial labels to IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu