Court Determines Suit Between Nigeria, Biafra Agitators On September 22
A Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, has fixed September 22, 2015, for the next hearing of the suit against Nigeria by the Supreme Council of Elders of the Indigenous People of Biafra using its legal arm, Bilie Human Right Initiative.
In suit no FHC/OW/CS/192/2013, the Bilie HuÂman Rights Initiative representing the Indigenous People of Biafra, who are indigenes of the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria, parts of South South and the Middle Belt zones, as claimants and Federal Republic of Nigeria, Attorney-General of the Federation as defendants, according to the originating summons, sought to enforce their right to self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 -25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap 10 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, and to redress all wrongs occasioned on them by the defendants.
As a result, the claimants are praying for the determination by the court whether the Indigenous People of Biafra, who are the remnants that were not consumed in the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967–1970, have the right of self-determination pursuant to Articles 19 –25 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The summons also sought the determination by the court whether the claimants who identified themselves as Biafrans by indigenous identity were committing any offence by doing so contrary to any provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 or contrary to any provision of the Criminal Code and whether it is a crime under any national or international law to mention the name of Biafra or for the remnants of the Indigenous People of Biafra who were not consumed by the war to maintain their indigenous identity as Biafrans with their native emblems and symbols as they do now even though they are Nigerians by citizenship and nationality laws; and if the answer is in the negative, whether the defendants are justified to arrest, shoot and kill the children of the claimants for identifying themselves as Biafrans.
