Justice Abdu-Kafarati’s Ruling Is Final Confirmation That Nigeria Is Indeed A Shit-hole
It didn’t come to us as a surprise that the Federal High Court of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday the 18th of January 2018, upheld it’s obnoxious order proscribing the activities of IPOB, when everybody knows that the organisation is peaceful and have not killed an ant, talk less of taking a human life.
Acting Chief Judge Justice, Abdu Kafarati while delivering on the application brought by IPOB, resolved that the order he made on 20th September 2017 proscribing IPOB was validly issued. We remain at a loss to understand how the court could have come to this conclusion in view of the fact there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate that IPOB is an armed or violent group like Fulani herdsmen.
Simply put, a judge cannot be ignorant of the law and at the same time lacking in conscience. What Abdu-Kafarati has displayed, by upholding his originally flawed judgement, is nothing short of judicial impunity, recklessness and raw wickedness. He failed to address all the issues before him but rather chose to be selective. The simple question which ordinary people have been asking all along is this. What activity or aspect of IPOB operations can be regarded as constituting a terrorist act? Can Judge Abdu-Kafarati, the DSS or Attorney General’s office name one verifiable incident of breach of peace, murder, arson or rape- usually associated with thier fellow Fulani herdsmen- that IPOB has ever been associated with?
Instead of addressing these simple questions, Kafarati spent all his time outlining why tagging IPOB a terrorist organisation inside his chambers is legal. But that wasn’t the question before him for determination. How can you term an organisation a terrorist group when that group has not done anything remotely resembling a terrorist act. There is no recorded or verifiable instance of violence associated with IPOB, unless holding public rallies, right of assembly and association constitutes a terrorist act.
It flies in the face of common sense and human decency that an entirely peaceful organisation, agitating for their inalienable right to self determination, guaranteed under all known laws to man, can be so cruelly and crudely labelled a terrorist group, because some persons see IPOB as an impediment in their quest to Islamise Southern Nigeria.
It is public knowledge that armed Fulani terror herdsmen has been on rampage, killing and maiming people in their homes, also setting many ablaze, while destroying farm crops and produce. The greatest irony of all is that Fulani terror herdsmen, recognised as the fourth largest terrorist organisation in the world is not even acknowledged as such by the Nigerian courts, the presidency and security agencies. Neither are they even remotely being considered as a group whose activity is worthy of proscription. Fulani herdsmen it appears enjoy the protection of the state and are also being rewarded with their own territories, through the establishment of cattle colonies.
It is shocking that IPOB, a world acknowledged peaceful movement duly registered in more than 88 countries of the world, was tagged a terrorist organisation in a court of law of a supposedly civilised country. Under such circumstance, it will be difficult to fault President Trump’s description of Africa as a “shit-hole”. Such travesty of justice, like the labeling of IPOB, a peaceful organisation a terrorist group by a supposedly learned and impartial judge of a High Court, while the state reward and protect known killers like Fulani herdsmen. This mind blowing absurdity cannot obtain anywhere else in the world except in black Africa.
With this judgement, Justice Abdu-Kafarati has reaffirmed once again that Nigerian judiciary and her entire legal system is the most corrupt in the world. The civilised world must rise up with one voice to condemn this outrage. When nationalists rose to fight colonialism, they never envisaged replacing it with something infinitely worse and more inhumane like what obtains in Nigeria today. Nigeria it is fair to say, has no legal system.
COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.
