Tag: Judiciary

The leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, has sued the Department of State Services and the Attorney-General of the Federation to court over his prolonged detention and the refusal of the government to release his passport. In the fundamental human rights suit instituted at the Federal High Court, Abuja, by his lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), El-Zakzaky is seeking seven reliefs, including an “order mandating the respondents to pay over to the applicant the sum of N2bn as general and exemplary damages for the violation of the applicant’s rights to freedom of movement, fair hearing and property.” The cleric is also seeking a declaration that the seizure of his passport with number A50578740 since May 2019 is illegal and unconstitutional as it violates his...

The court of appeal, Abuja division, has granted the application of the Lagos state government as a co-respondent in the appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The FIRS is challenging the judgment of the federal high court, Port Harcourt, which restrained the agency from collecting VAT and personal income tax (PIT) in Rivers state. At the lower court, the FIRS had appealed for a stay of execution, but the court dismissed it on the basis that it would “negate the principle of equity”. Consequently, FIRS went to the court of appeal. On September 10, the Attorney-general of Lagos, Moyosore Onigbanjo, applied to be joined as a party in the appeal. The state had also passed a VAT bill into law. Onigbanjo had submitted that the outcome of the appeal would have ...

The Indigenous People of Biafra has warned that it will declare a one-month sit-at-home protest in Biafraland if its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is not presented in court on October 21. The Media and Publicity Secretary of the secessionist group, Emma Powerful, made this known on Wednesday in a statement made available to our correspondent in Awka, Anambra State. He said IPOB got from a reliable source that the Department of State Services would not bring Kanu to court on October 21 as a ploy to continue to incarcerate him. He said, “The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra has been drawn to the plot by Nigeria government and her DSS in Abuja not to produce our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to court on October 21, 2021, the date he is due to appear in court to start his case. ...