Man Sues Fg, Wants Declaration As Natural Biafran

Man sues FG, wants declaration as natural Biafran   
Written by Ise-Oluwa Ige & Ikechukwu Nnochiri     
Friday, 26 September 2008 
A Bonny Town-based businessman, Apostle Kalada M. Jene yesterday filed a class action before a Federal high court sitting in Abuja seeking to break away with his people from Nigerian enterprise and operate as Natural Biafrans.
Jene is also asking for an order restraining the Federal Government from interfering or inhibiting him and his followers from pursuing their rights to self determination.

Besides, he is asking for an order declaring that there is nothing in the 1999 constitution inhibiting him and his followers from breaking away from Nigeria .

In the originating summons filed by his lawyer, Amuda-Kannike & Co, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Federation Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police, the Senate President, the Speaker of House of Representatives and Chief Anthony Enahoro were named as respondents.

He said he was joining elder-statesman, Chief Enahoro in the suit because he was the person that moved the motion for Nigeria independence in 1959 and for which “our group and people have been conscripted  into the Nigerian nation.”

He said that presently, “our group and people are not enjoying anything from the defendants other than intimidation, harassment and infringement of all our fundamental rights which are provided for under the said Nigerian constitution.

“That we have good reasons why we are looking for a way out to use legal means to form our own independent nation

That our group and people had participated on several occasions on non-violent agitation such as the famous “Kiama Declarations,” “Congress of Niger Delta Activist” on January 18, 2008 in which over 25 media houses were in attendance.

In the suit, he posed two fundamental questions for the court to answer including:

· Whether by the provisions of the 1999 constitution, especially sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 constitution, the plaintiff can be inhibited from answering the name “:Natural Biafran” or associating with the said name

·  Whether by virtue of the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and that of the United Nations, the plaintiff can pursue a right of self determination lawfully without interference by the defendants.

Should the questions be answered in his favour, he is asking the court to issue him the following reliefs:

· A declaration that the plaintiff is under the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, entitled to answer the same and associate himself as a “Natural Biafran”

· A perpetual injunction restraining the defendants either acting by themselves or through their agents or privies from interfering with the rights of the plaintiff to answer the name and associate himself as a “Natural Biafran”

·  A declaration that there is nothing in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or any law at all which inhibits the plaintiff from pursuing his right to self determination in a lawful manner.

Although the court processes had been served on the defendants, no meaningful developments had taken place in the case.

 source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/17883/47/