Some lawyers from South-eastern Nigeria have filed a motion at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to join a lawsuit instituted by a group of northern elders who are praying for the exit of the Igbo speaking region from Nigeria.
The lawyers are against the campaign for the secession of the Southeastern states from Nigeria as being championed by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In the suit, the northern elders are seeking court’s approval for the South-east to secede and calling on the court to grant Southeast’s prayers to avoid a repeat of ugly events of the Civil War.
They sued the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the National Assembly.
‘Why we want to be joined’
But the legal practitioners from the South-east led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chuks Muoma, Ukpai Ukairo, Ebere Uzoatu and Obi Emuka filed their application for joinder to enable them to state the true position of the people of the region whom they argue have yet to be represented in the suit.
The lawyers, who described themselves as the representatives of the people of the South-eastern region, claimed that the case of the northern elders seeking the exit of South-east from Nigeria had the capability to shape the life of the generation of Igbo people.
In their application for joinder filed by Victor Onweremadu and seen by this reporter on Monday, the lawyers of Igbo extraction claimed that they have interest to protect in the suit, hence, their quest to be made a set of defendants in the case.
In their 12-paragraph affidavit in support of their application, the lawyers noted that the Northern elders in their suit did not think it necessary to join the people of the South-east region or their representatives to enable the court hear from them.
By PremiumTimes
