Lawyer sues FG, seeks right for self-determination
Lawyer sues FG, seeks right for self-determination
Lawyer sues FG, seeks right for self-determination
Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, a lawyer, has sued the Federal Government, urging the court to hold that there is no law stopping citizens from any part of the country from seeking self-determination, if they so want.

The lawyer, in his suit, particularly challenged the proscription and declaration of the Indigenous People of Biafra as a terrorist group.

He contended that IPOB’s proscription was “exploitative, oppressive, discriminatory and a violation of the fundamental human rights of the indigenous people of the South-East zone or Nigeria.”

Omirhobo argued that the proscription of IPOB was illegal, unlawful, undemocratic and unconstitutional” and amounted to the violation of the fundamental rights of the people of South-East to “life, dignity of human person, personal liberty, private and family life, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, movement and freedom from discrimination.”

He prayed the court to compel the Federal Government to reverse its decision declaring IPOB as a terrorist group.

He also wants the court to hold that the 1999 Constitution is not a people’s constitution and to declare that Nigeria is a failed state.

Omirhobo prayed the court to hold that being a failed state, “Nigeria requires the enactment of an ‘autochthonous constitution’ created by the indigenous people within Nigeria and approved via a referendum to save Nigeria from disintegrating and becoming a failed state.”

Omirhobo filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself, 373 ethnic nationalities and 45 pressure groups, agitating for self-determination in the country.

The pressure groups listed as plaintiffs in the suit include IPOB, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People; the Niger Delta Peoples’ Volunteer Force; Niger Delta Agitators; – Pan Niger Delta Forum; Niger Delta Freedom Mandate; Niger Delta Development Network; Niger Delta Freedom Redemption; Movement for the Actualization of the Niger Delta Peoples’ Republic; Niger Delta Movement for Justice; Niger Delta Patriotic Front; Niger Delta Peoples’ Fighter; and the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators.

Also listed as plaintiffs are the Bakassi  Freedom Fighters;  Niger Delta Watch Dog; Niger Delta; Urhobo Progressive Union; Congress; Niger Delta Liberation Force; Niger Delta Red Squad; Asawana Deadly Force of Niger Delta; Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders; Red Igbesu Water Lion; Niger Delta Afra Descendant Movement; Ijaw Youth Council; Urhobo Gbagbako;

 Others are Afenifere; Oodua Peoples’ Congres; Oodua Nationalist Coalition; Oodua Liberation Movement; Oodua Republic Coalition; Yoruba Revolutionary Congress; Oodua Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group; Yoruba Students’ Nationalist Front; Oodua Hunters Union; Coalition of Oodua Self-Determination Group; the Middle Belt Forum; the Middle Belt Youth Council; United Middle Belt Congress; and the Northern Central Unity Bridge.

Omirhobo is urging the court to declare that the “unity and harmony of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign Nation is not a do-or-die affair and that the unity of Nigeria is negotiable between the indigenous peoples within the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 1st respondent.”

He wants the court to declare that “the proscription of IPOB as a terrorist group by the 1st respondent is a gross distortion and misrepresentation of IPOB agitation for the self-determination of the indigenous peoples of South-East Nigeria.”

 
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