In Nigeria, a Group known as Bilie Human Rights Initiative, has dragged the Federal Government before an Owerri High Court seeking compensation for the deaths and losses suffered by the people of South-East Nigeria in the hands of Federal Government forces, which they viewed as haranguing, genocidal and economically strangulating people of the area.
The suit against the Federal Government and the Attorney-General of the Federation also seeks to enforce the rights of indigenous people of Biafra to self-determination and independence, which was brought by way of originating summons.
The group said they were determined to forge a new nation – Republic of Biafra, with its land, littoral and continental shelves.
They are seeking the inalienable rights of the descendants of Biafra land who are the remnants that were not consumed by the 1967-1970 war in which about three million Biafrans were killed.
They are praying the court to pronounce the territory as it was pre 1967 independent and sovereign in the light of relevant charters on human and peoples rights, realities of the incompatibility of those who make up the geo-space called Nigeria, among others.
In a statement by the spokesperson of Bilie Human Rights Initiative, Arinzechukwu Awogu in Awka, copy of which was made available to The Guardian, signed by the group’s Secretary General, Eddy Anyanwu, the group said it sued over Biafra’s quest for independence and other unresolved pre and post Nigeria-Biafra war issues, which included the use of starvation as “legitimate instrument of warfare,” the bombing of civilian targets, the 20 Pounds per account holder policy, the abandoned property saga, the hasty indigenisation policy enacted and implemented before the recovery of war affected people of Biafra, among other vexed issues.
The suit also sought to know whether the defendants (Nigeria and Nigerians) were right to seize and confiscate the assets, properties, money, and all treasures belonging to the claimants (Biafrans) by promulgating the Abandoned Properties Act of September 28, 1979
while the 1963 Constitution was in force, being more than nine years after the war and after the declaration of “One Nigeria” while regarding the claimants (Biafrans) as Nigerian citizens but depriving them of their properties, money and assets; and if the answer is in the negative, among other issues.
Leave a Reply