22.7b loan: Southeast raises alarm over exclusion, heads to ECOWAS Court

-As legal fireworks commences Monday-

By Ezurike Ugochukwu  and Ambrose Nnaji

Indigenes of the Southeast states comprising of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States have raised the alarm over the exclusion of the Southeast in the allocation and distribution of 22.7 billion loan being processed by the Federal Government.

A group in the zone, South-East Response Team (SOREST), have on themselves( Aku Obidinma Maduwuba, Afubera Patric Azubuike, Nwafor Nnanna Nelson, Francis Obumneme and Ikechukwu Onwa) and on behalf of all Indigenes of the Southeast states of Nigeria(Applicants) sued the federal Republic of Nigeria(Respondent), at the Community  Court of Justice of the Economic  Community  of West African States (ECOWAS Court), Abuja.

In the Suit NO: ECW/CCJ/APP/ /2020, through an application brought before the ECOWAS Court made in pursuant to articles 33 of the rules of the Community Court of Justice, 10 of the Supplementary Protocol A/SP. 1/01/05 amending the protocol (A/P1/7/91), relating to the Community Court of Justice

Panel of Justices at ECOWAS Court

The zone also sued in pursuant of articles 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 19, 22 and 24 of the African Charter on human and People’s Rights, articles 2, 7, 21(2), AND 22  of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted and Proclaimed by General Assembly  Resolution 217, among other grounds.

According to  the documents sighted by Nation update online, the Federal Government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari is putting finishing touches towards securing a loan of $22.7 billion from the Exim Bank of China, World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Japan International Corporation Agency, German Development Bank and French Development Agency for developmental projects in the country.

The proposed plan of the spending of the loan included infrastructure, social investment, power, education, economy, communication, agriculture, health/water, governance, and environment.

According to the National Coordinator,SOREST, Aku Obidinma, the group said the loan was tagged and shared to the indigenes of the other five geopolitical zones of Nigeria, for projects to be cited in those zones as follows; Southwest $200,000,000.00, south-South $4,270,000,000.00. North West $6,372,000,000.00, Northeast $300,000,000.00; North Central $6,531,000,000; to the exclusion of the Applicants and all the other indigenes of Southeast of Igbo ethnic group.

That the said sums allocated to the indigenes of the South-South, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, and Northcentral, by the government were for the execution of several developmental projects to the exclusion of the Applicants and other indigenes of Southeast states.

Nigeria is made up of six geopolitical zones including the South-East, South-South, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, and North central. Each of these geopolitical zones has different ethnic groups who are indigenes and are ultimately the direct beneficiaries of these projects.

South -East Governors

However, the entire indigenes of the Southeast Zone of Nigeria were excluded from, through the discriminatory conducts of the Respondent. That all the other five geopolitical zones, and their indigenes of diverse ethnicity, benefitted from the share, allocation, and distribution of projects.

With the exception of the Applicants and all other indigenes of the Southeast geopolitical zone comprising of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states of Nigeria who were discriminated against and marginalized in respect of the share, allocation,  and distribution of tangible projects, from the loan.

That these developmental projects were allocated by the federal government to the other five geopolitical zones of Nigeria to the exclusion of the Southeast where the other indigenes of the Southeast of the Igbo ethnic group come from, thereby discriminating against the indigenes of the Southeast of Igbo ethnic group, on the basis of their ethnicity, political opinion, religion and place of birth.

The Applicants, and other indigenes of the Southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria, of the Igbo ethnic group, are being marginalized and discriminated against by the conducts of the federal government on the basis of their ethnicity, political opinion, religion and place of origin in the distribution of projects accruing from the loan

That by the provisions of section Articles 2, 13 (2&3), 19,22 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Articles 25(c)and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil And Political Rights,1976, Articles 2,7,21(2),22, and 25(1) Of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1948, the Applicants, and all other indigenes of the Southeast states of Igbo ethnic group, are protected against discriminatory treatments on the basis of their ethnicity, political orientation, religion and place of birth.

Abaribe

That a group of Senators from the Southeast, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, also protested against the discrimination and exclusion of the indigenes of the Southeast states of Igbo ethnic group from tangible developmental projects, from the loan.

The Applicant had written the President, Muhammadu Buhari, seeking the reversal of the decision to exclude them from the share of developmental projects accruable from the loan, but no response was gotten.

Violation of the Fundamental Rights to freedom from discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, political opinion and place of birth, by the allocation and distribution of projects to the indigenes of the diverse ethnic groups sought by the federal government

The group recalled that upon the swearing-in of President Muhammadu Buhari in his first term of office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in 2015, in the course of a world press briefing at the US Institute of Peace, in the United States of America, he told the whole world that all zones of Nigeria will not be treated equally, as those who gave him 97% were to enjoy maximum benefits of the inclusive government, in the area of developmental projects and appointments, as against those who gave him 5%.

The video footage of the above presidential declaration according to the document  is pleaded and marked as part of the  evidences to  be relied on (Annexure 1. 7.).

The Southeast therefore seek an order of the court directing the government of Nigeria  to  include the interest of the Applicants in the share, allocation and distribution of projects, with respect to the
$22.7b loan sought by the Respondent (the federal government).

It also sought an order of injunction restraining the Respondent, whether, by itself, its President, agents, employees, servants, privies,
international donor agencies, and financial institutions and or howsoever called, from further proceeding with, or continuing with the disbursement of the sum of $22.7b loan, sought by the Respondent,

The petitioners further sought the order of the honourable Court to direct the Respondent to
pay over to the applicants the sum of N500bn for the gross infringement of the fundamental rights of the Applicants.

The Applicants shall rely on such evidences as documentaries, video footages, online reports  and others to buttress the various forms of deliberate and calculated plan to exclude them from the loan.

Obidimma

According to the coordinator of SOREST, Obidimma there are so many projects equivalent to the ones marked for execution in other geopolitical zone laying on attended to in the Southeast.

“Southeast is not captured in the ongoing railway construction in the country, all the agricultural loans and projects going on in the country have not In anyway accommodated the Southeast, the Anchor Borrowers Programme and many other federal government loans and financial aid schemes have the zone sidelined.

“the Silo project started at Okigwe in Imo state by the last administration has presently been  taken over by weeds, and erosion about to run down the place, even as the contractors left the site five years ago.

“There is nothing so special going on in the zone in the name of project that does not have triple of such in other zones so why this wicked exclusion?”

The matter comes up for hearing on Monday 13 July, 2020 at the Community  Court of Justice of the Economic  Community  of West African States (ECOWAS Court), Abuja.