Aku Obidinma, a citizen of Nigeria has filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the federal government’s exclusion of the South East from the allocation in the $22.7 billion loan deal.
In the suit brought by his counsel, Nkemakolam Okoro Esq, Obidinma alleged that the president acted in the sharing of the loan “pursuant to his ingrained discriminatory treatment against the indigenes of the southeast”.
The projects which would be sited in five geopolitical zones of Nigeria according to Obidinma excluded all the other indigenes of Southeast of Igbo ethnic group, comprising the Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.”
The Southwest $200,000,000; South-South $4,270,000,000; North West $6,372,000,000; Northeast $300,000,000; North Central $6,531,000,000; were mentioned in the suit as beneficiaries.
He is therefore asking the court to declare the loan as “invalid, illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever, as same is in breach, breaching and/or likely to breach the fundamental rights of the Applicant.”
The Applicant also averred that the loan is likely to breach the fundamental rights of “the entire indigenes of the Igbo ethnic group, of the Southeast of Nigeria, comprising Abia, Anambra,Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, States as provided for in 42(1&2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Articles 2, 13,19, 22 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, Articles 25(c)and 26 of The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights,1976, Articles 2,7,21(2), and 22 Of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1948.”
The Applicant contends that him and other indigenes of the Southeast states, of the Igbo ethnic group, are being discriminated against by virtue of the conducts of President Buhari, who discriminated against them, on the basis of their ethnicity, political opinion, and place of origin, in the distribution of projects accruing from the loan of $22.7b, sought from, the Exim Bank of China, World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic.
He wants the court to make a declaration that the conduct of President Muhammadu Buhari in the allocation and distribution of projects to the indigenes of the diverse ethnic groups of the Southwest, South south, Northwest, Northeast and North Central, with respect to the $22.7b loan sought from the Exim Bank of China, World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, German Development Bank and French Development Agency, and approved by the National Assembly “by excluding, neglecting and discriminating against the Applicant, an indigene of the Southeast, of Igbo ethnic group, and the entire indigenes of the Igbo ethnic group, of the Southeast of Nigeria.
He cited that the basis of the distribution is also discriminatory, oppressive, inequitable, undemocratic and are in breach, breaching, and or are likely to breach their fundamental rights, as provided for in section 42(1&2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Articles 2, 13,19,22 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, Articles 25(c)and 26 of The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights,1976, Articles 2,7,21(2), and 22 of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights,1948, and are therefore unconstitutional, illegal, wrongful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”
Meanwhile, the date has not been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
