By ABUBAKAR YUNUSA,KOGI
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, adjourned hearing on the suit filed by the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) seeking a referendum to determine a separate state of Biafra to January 27, 2022.
Recall that, CNG had in June 2021 dragged the National Assembly and the Attorney-General of the Federation to Court, asking the court to compel the defendants to halt the constitution review exercise and in its place, conduct a referendum to determine if the people in the South East want a separate state.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, who presided over the matter, granted all the motions to allow interested parties to be joined in the suit.
Counsel to CNG, Barrister Sufiyanu Gambo, while speaking with journalists after the adjournment, said the Court had adjourned to 27 January take all the application to enable parties have the processes and then respond appropriately.
Gambo said: “We amended all our processes as directed by the court and as other parties are equally joined for defendant which is Senate, National Assembly and Attorney General, so about 16 parties were added and then between last hearing and today.
“There are a lot of people who have filed the application to be joined and we are unable to ascertain some of them because we only see them in court introducing their application.”
In his reaction, the spokesperson of CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, lamented that the suit had suffered too many adjustments within few months.
His words: “We feel the suit has suffered too many adjustments. It’s been dragging for about a year now without commencment of hearing. But the delays are about processes. The suit is developing into an interesting national issue and we’re confident the result would put all agitations to rest.
“We’re assured by the requests coming by parties seeking to be joined as defendants in the case. This testifies to the fact that after all, we at CNG have taken the necessary decision by taking this legal option for the resolution of the lingering crisis of trust that appears to be overwhelming all other previous options.
“We are are also confident that in the end the court, a temple of justice, would dispense justice appropriately in the interest of the future of Nigeria”.
However, the counsel to Ibom Nation Peoples Movement, Barrister Adesina Oke, who applied to join the application, disclosed that the Ibom Nation agitators were also interested in self-determination.
He said: “It important people should express themselves that is why it is very very imperative for us to join this suit because the court ruled that you can’t prevent people from matter that is of interest to them. We want to be identified on our own, we are different culture and we different people”.
In his remarks, the lead counsel for the Igbo Nation, Victor Onweremadu, said: “When this suit was instituted, I was purely against it from the beginning, the plaintiff asked the five Eastern States to exit from this country that is the genesis of this suit.
“You can see that is creating a wild fire for all the ethnicities across the country and they are now applying to be join the suite, in the last adjournment Igbo filed application to join this suit and we are properly joined.
“One important lesson we should learn from this is that, Nigeria is living on the keg of powder, because many Nigerians are not happy. That is why they don’t believe in one Nigeria”.
