The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has told a Court of Appeal that the memo written by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to President Muhammadu Buhari, was signed by the late Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, and was used by the Federal High Court to proscribe and declare it a terrorist organization.
According to the pro-Biafra group, the memo by Abba Kyari rather than Buhari violated the clear provisions of the Terrorist Prevention Act, which required the president to sign the approval.
IPOB lawyers said;
In fact, the decision to approve the proscription of a group or organisation as a terrorist body is one of discretion to be personally exercised by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which was regrettably delegated to the Chief of Staff contrary to well established rule against sub-delegation…That the Office of Chief of Staff to the President is not one of the offices mentioned in S. 5 (1) (a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to which the President can delegate his powers and functions.
They submitted the amended brief of argument filed in the appeal challenging the proscription and classification of the group as a terrorist organisation.
Specifically, the appeal marked CA/A/214/2018, and filed by the lead counsel to IPOB, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN) is querying the decision of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court in suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/871/2017, proscribing and declaring IPOB as a terrorist group.
According to IPOB, the Buhari-led administration discriminated against the group by proscribing its activities and declaring it a terrorist group.
It prayed the court not to “validate the unconstitutional behaviour of the respondent discriminatory act by applying for the declaration and proscription of the appellant and the President purportedly approving the same whereas their Fulani herdsmen (the 4th most deadly terrorist group in the world) who move freely with AK.47 murdering, killing indigenous people all over Nigeria and grabbing their lands were never condemned and or proscribed and whether there was even a valid approval by the President.”
In its amended grounds of appeal, IPOB said:
The purported presidential approval as contained was simply a memo written by the Attorney General of the Federal to the President dated 15th September, 2017(Exhs. AGF 11a & 11b)(see pages 57 – 61 of the Records of Appeal) to President Muhammadu Buhari and was curiously signed by Abba Kyari, the then Chief of Staff to the president, contrary to the unambiguous provisions of the Terrorism Act which specifically provided that the approval shall be signed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Lords, a cursory look at the Memo of the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation dated 15thday of September 2017, addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the said presidential approval (EXHIBIT AGF IIA & IIB) (pages 57 – 61 of the Records of Appeal)which the trial judge relied on as constituting the mandatory president’s approval show that it was a mere memo from the Attorney General of the Federation to the President requesting for the said president’s approval as prescribed under Section 2 (1)(C) of the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013, and not the mandatory president’s approval envisaged under the Act.
We therefore submit that having not been signed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, there was no evidence of the presidential approval before the trial court as required under Section 2 (1)(c) of the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013. More so, under Section 40 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011, which deals with the interpretation of words or phrases, the word “President” as used in the Act, refers and only means ‘the President’. It is equally our further submission that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 under Section 5 neither mentions nor contemplates any form of delegation to the Chief of Staff to the President as an officer to whom such crucial executive function of the president can be delegated to.
Recall that on September 20, 2017, the Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation, approached the Federal High Court in an ex parte application brought under Section 2(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2013, to declare and proscribe IPOB as a terrorist organization, among other reliefs.