A lawsuit filed by the Coalition of Northern Groups to force the Igbo people of the South East of Nigeria to leave the country has been dismissed by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by a group of Northern politicians and elders led by Nastura Shariff, Balarabe Rufa’i, Abdul-Aziz Sulaiman, and Aminu Adam because the plaintiffs had not shown up in court to prove their case.
None of the plaintiffs were in court when the issue arose, and they lacked legal representation.
After reviewing the case file, Justice Ekwo found that the Northern groups had not received legal representation and had not appeared in court since 2022.
The judge said in a succinct order that the plaintiffs appear to have given up on their own lawsuit.
As a result, Justice Ekwo dismissed the case for lack of diligent prosecution.
The Northern faction had filed the lawsuit, requesting that the court order the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President to expedite the Southeast region’s departure from Nigeria.
They begged that this be completed prior to the conclusion of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution Amendment.
The Northern elders and lawmakers filed the lawsuit with the file number FHC/ABJ/CS/538/2021, which included the secession request.
They claimed in the lawsuit that the South-East would be free of violence and devastation if the Igbo were allowed to leave Nigeria.
They said that this would prevent a recurrence of Nigeria’s 1967–1970 Civil War, which resulted in the needless loss of life and property.
The organizations added that this will stop the agitations of Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB.
They prayed for, among others, a declaration that combined 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 south-eastern region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to decide on their bid for self-determination.”
They also urged the court to order the second, third and fourth defendants (the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly) “to provide a framework that will pave way for the self-determination of the south-eastern states so as to leave the geographical entity called Nigeria before any further step is taken to further amend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can be further amended at any time after the question of self-determination must have been resolved by Nigerians,” the plaintiffs said.
