[UPDATE] Biafra: Court adjourns CNG suit on referendum to January 27

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, adjourned hearing on the suit filed by the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) seeking a referendum to determine the fate of Biafra and other self-determination agitations to January 27, 2022.

It would be recalled that the CNG had in June 2021 dragged the National Assembly and the Attorney-General of the Federation to Court, asking it to compel the defendants to halt the ongoing constitutional review exercise and in its place, conduct a referendum to determine what determines Nigeria and who populates it.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, who presided over the matter, granted all the motions to allow interested parties to be joined in the suit.

Counsel to CNG, Barrister Sufiyanu Gambo, while speaking with journalists after the adjournment, said the Court had adjourned to 27 January for taking all the application to enable us have the processes and then respond appropriately.

Gambo said: “We amended all our processes directed by the court and as order parties are equally joined for defendant which is senate, National Assembly and Attorney General, so about 16 parties were added and then between last hearing and today.

“There are a lot of people who have filed the application to joined and we are unable to certain some of them because we only see them in court introducing their application to have filed to joined and because we don’t have the processes”.

In his reaction, the spokesperson of CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, lamented that the suit had suffered too many adjustments with few months.

His words: “We feel the suit has suffered too many adjustments. It’s been dragging for about a year now without commencing hearing. But the delays are about process. The suit is developing into an interesting national issue and we’re confident the result would put all agitations to rest.