A federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a suit instituted by a coalition of Northern groups seeking the exit of Igbo from the Southeast of Nigeria.
The suit by the group of elders and politicians from the North, led by Nastura Shariff, Balarabe Rufai, Abdul-Aziz Sulaiman and Aminu Adam, was thrown out by the Judge, following the persistent absence of the plaintiffs in court to establish their case.
When the matter came up, none of the plaintiffs was in court, and they were not represented by lawyers.
Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo, after going through the case file, discovered that the Northern groups have not been coming to court since 2022, and had no legal representation.
In a brief ruling, the Ekwo held that from all indications, the plaintiffs have abandoned their own suit. The court, therefore, struck out the case for want of diligent prosecution.
The Northern groups had filed the case, asking the court to compel the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives to hasten the exit of the Southeastern region out of Nigeria.
They pleaded that this should be done before the conclusion of the amendment of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.
The secession request was contained in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/538/2021, instituted by the group of elders and politicians from the North.
In the suit, they argued that allowing the Igbo to exit Nigeria would end violence and destruction in the region.
They also explained that this would stop the repeat of the 1967-1970 Civil War that led to wanton destruction of life and property.
The groups also said that this would put an end to the agitations by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Nnamdi Kanu.
They prayed for, among other things, a declaration that combined the effect of the provisions of Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution and Articles 1, 2, and 20 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act 2004 “is empowered to set in motion a framework for a referendum to allow the Southeastern region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to decide on their bid for self-determination.”
