Court proscribes IPOB as FG says group gets funds from France - Newspaper review

The headlines of mainstream Nigerian newspapers for Thursday, September 21, are focused on the Federal High Court's proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

The Punch reports that the Federal High Court in Abuja has given judicial backing to the executive order of President Muhammadu Buhari, outlawing the Indigenous People of Biafra and its activities in every part of Nigeria.

The Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdu Kafarati, granted the order proscribing the group on Wednesday.

It declared that the activities of the group constituted an act of terrorism and illegality.

The Punch newspaper

ThisDay reports that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) in his application, had asked the court for an order declaring that the activities of IPOB in any part of Nigeria, especially the South-east and South-south of Nigeria, amounted to acts of terrorism and illegality.

He also asked the court for an order proscribing the existence of IPOB in any part of Nigeria, especially the South-east and South-south of Nigeria, either in groups or as individuals by whatever names they are called and publishing same in the official gazette and two national dailies.

Malami asked the court for an order restraining any person or group of persons from participating in any manner whatsoever in any form of activities involving or concerning the prosecution of the collective intention or otherwise of IPOB under any other name or platform howsoever called or described.

ThisDay Newspaper

The Nation reports that the federal government accused the United Kingdom of doing very little about its complaint that Biafra Radio was broadcasting from its territory.

Besides, said the government, the bulk of IPOB’s funding from its diaspora supporters is sent through France.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed, who stated this yesterday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, added that IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu’s belligerent attitude and the violence the group employed could not be overlooked by any government.

The Nation newspaper

The Guardian reports that the former vice president and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to provide the world a good example in the way minorities are treated in the country.

Atiku applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for drawing the United Nations (UN) attention to the sufferings of Myanmar’s Rohingya people cited by the UN as perhaps the world’s most persecuted minorities.The former vice president spoke via a statement issued in Abuja by his media office in reaction to President Buhari’s presentation at the UN General Assembly in New York, United States.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 news app

He stressed that minorities all over the world deserve the cooperation of majority groups, adding that he is convinced that Nigeria would also provide the world a good example in the way the country treats its minority groups.

The Guardian Newspaper

Meanwhile Vanguard reports that the governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, Wednesday, said that Igbo play the worst politics in Nigeria, noting that IPOB should have used another name rather using Biafra for their agitation.