The Lesbian Equality and Empowerment Initiative have dragged the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to the Court of Appeal, over its refusal to register the non-profit organisation.
According to popular LGBT activist, Pamela Adie who served an update on the lawsuit, said she and her team decided to appeal the federal high court judgement which struck out their lawsuit against the CAC.
Adie insisted that the refusal of the CAC to register her non-profit organization on grounds of being offensive, is an infringement of her constitutional right to freedom of association.
She tweeted;
NOTICE OF APPEAL FILED IN THE CASE OF PAMELA ADIE vs. CAC Background: As some of you may be aware, I applied to register a nonprofit called Lesbian Equality & Empowerment Initiative(LEEI) but was denied by the Nigerian govt. agency, Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC), because it said “Lesbian” was offensive.
I felt this was an infringement of my constitutional Right to Freedom of Association. My team and I filed a suit against CAC in 2018 at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
In the same year, the Honorable court delivered a judgment in favor of CAC and cited the discriminatory Section 4 of the Same Sex Marriage(Prohibition) Act of 2013 as a reason for denial of my constitutional right to Freedom of Association.
As law abiding citizens of this great country, Nigeria, we are pursuing all available legal options and have filed a notice of appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in Abuja, Nigeria. This marks the beginning of the appeal process.
I thank everyone who has supported our pursuit for justice and fairness as we follow due process to ensure that the constitutionally guaranteed right to Freedom of Association is enjoyed by EVERY Nigerian. Thank you. – Pamela Adie
