The Economic Community of West
African States’ court has berated the Nigerian Government for always filing
fresh motions in a bid to frustrate a fundamental right enforcement suit filed
by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
The regional court described the
action of the Nigerian Government as unacceptable.
Speaking during today’s hearing,
one of the judges on the three-man panel, Justice Alioune Sall said they were
not in a Nigerian court but an international court which has a different way and
“the process of bringing new documents every day is not allowed here.”
Sall said this after Kanu’s
counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor told the court that it had scheduled today’s sitting
for definite hearing.
Ejiofor said, however, “two days
ago, my attention was drawn to a new process filed by the Federal Government
challenging the authority of the court to hear the case.”
Describing the process filed by
the Federal Government as baseless, Kanu’s counsel alleged that the purpose was
to truncate today’s hearing.
“We want the matter to be heard
speedily as the court had earlier ordered. But we are sure they (FG) do not
have any defence for the substantial suit hence the reason they filed this new
process to truncate the day’s hearing,” he said.
Ejiofor prayed the court to give
them a short date to respond to the application. He also asked the court to
award a punitive cost of N10 million against the FG.
Reacting to Ejiofor’s prayer,
Federal Government’s counsel, Maimuna Lami Shiru, an Assistant Director in the
Federal Ministry of Justice, said they filed the application because the court
had earlier asked for the issue to be addressed when new facts arise.
Shiru explained that the
application filed on November 14 was to bring to the attention of the court
that the IPOB had been proscribed by the government.
She consequently urged the court
to discountenance Ejiofor’s prayer of N10million cost against the government.
After listening to both
arguments, the three-man panel led by Justice Hameye Foune Mahalmadane
thereafter adjourned the matter to February 7, 2018.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com