IPOB: Lawyers Protest At US Embassy, caution Envoy to respect Rule of Law in Nigeria

By Dansu Peter

The League of African Democratic Lawyers have warned the Embassy of the United States of America in Nigeria to desist from making negative comments against the decision of the federal government to designate the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terror group.

Last week, the Spokesman of the US Embassy in Nigerian, Mr. Russell Brooks “The Indigenous People of Biafra is not a terrorist organization under US law.” 

The Country Representative ‎Of the league flawyers, Barrister John Oboh, said the organization is alarmed by Mr. Brooks’ declaration that “Important political and economic issues affecting the Nigerian people, such as the allocation of resources, are worthwhile topics for respectful debate in a democracy.” 

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According to the lawyers, their their worry is that from the much they have monitored about the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), "nothing in its approach suggests the kind of “respectful debate” that the US Embassy’s spokesman recommended. "There is nothing indigenous about IPoB or the defunct Biafra they are striving to revive. Our research clearly show that on the contrary, persons from the modern day are of what was the defunct Biafra are actually displacing Nigeria’s other ethnic nationalities from their ancestral land, erode their culture and impose themselves on the commercial interests of their host communities.

"Even where IPoB successfully claims the status of “Indigenous Peoples”, we urge the United States not to lose sight of Article 46 (1) of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which clearly states that “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, people, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act contrary to the Charter of the United Nations or construed as authorizing or encouraging any action which would DISMEMBER or IMPAIR, totally or in part, the TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY or POLITICAL UNITY of sovereign and independent States”‎, the group said.

According to the lawyers, consultations by the League of African Democratic Lawyers revealed that IPoB’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu included the term “Indigenous People” in his group’s name solely to mislead people of his ethnic stock into believing that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples refers to them and absolves them of any crime committed in pursuit of reviving the defunct Biafra. 

"The rise and mutation of ISIL/ISIS/Daesh/Islamic State from a movement that claimed to be fighting against injustice under Syria’s Bashar al-Asad is a lesson the world must not ignore to learn from", he said.