The Federal Government has called on the ECOWAS community court sitting in Abuja to hands off the case brought before the court by embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
In letter to the sub-regional court, the federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Justice, noted that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the suit.
The government called on the court to strike out the suit for “stemming from incompetency in initiating the application against the defendants.”
It stated further that the suit was “an abuse of court process or subjecting the Nigerian law to ridicule,” as the plaintiff had failed to wait to hear the outcome of his application before a Nigerian Domestic Court of Appeal
Part of the statement reads thus; “The corporate existence of Nigeria as a united, harmonious, indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation is certainly greater than any citizen’s liberty or right,” adding that once the security of the nation is in jeopardy, “and it survives in pieces rather than in peace”, individual’s liberty or rights may not even exist.”
“It is trite law that a court cannot assume jurisdiction over ancillary claims when it has no jurisdiction to entertain the main claim, since an ancillary claim can only be properly determined by that court.”
“Thus, it is improper to approach a court which is incompetent to determine only some of the issues in a case if there is a court with jurisdiction to determine all the issues.”
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