JUST IN!!! Leadership Tussle Threatens in Bilie Human Rights Initiatives Over Biafra Suit Against Nigeria

 

 

The leadership crisis rocking the Bilie Human Rights Initiatives came to fore on October 20, 2016 at the resumed hearing of the suit filed against the Nigeria Federation on behalf of the Supreme Elders Council of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, at the Federal High Court, Owerri Division, in the Imo State capital, when Mr. Innocent Amadi, an engineer and Mr. Michael George Umorem, both claimed to be the national president and interim national president respectively of the organisation to the amusement of the presiding Judge.

But that was just the beginning of the drama because as soon as the case was called by the court clerk, two lawyers, Mbakwe Obi and Ohaeto Uwazie said they were holding briefs for the organisation.

This prompted the presiding Judge, Louis Alagba to ask the former counsel to the plaintiff, Uwazie if he was not aware that his client had disengaged him from the matter, and if so, why did he still announce his appearance in a case that his services were no longer needed, if not for mischief.

But Uwazie insisted that he remained the sole counsel in the matter as he was still holding the brief of Emeka Asiri Emeka, who is the legal adviser and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bilie Human Rights Initiatives, stressing that to the best of his knowledge he had not been disengaged. Even when he was shown the notice of his disengagement from the case, he still claimed that it was never served on him.

When the judge ordered that he be served afresh in the court, the former counsel again, argued that the proper person to be served should be Emeka Asiri who he said lives in London, and the Judge insisted that since he holds the brief of Emeka Asiri that he should transmit the service to him.

He further told the court that Amadi who he referred as the former national president of the organisation did not have the locus standi to replace him as the counsel as his tenure as the president of the organisation had long expired. He instantly requested the judge to adjourn the case to enable them to sort out what he called a mix-up.

Justice Alagba who was not amused by the argument of Uwazie said that the plaintiff reserved the right to determine who should represent him in any matter and therefore, should not insist, but he should rather ask to be paid his legal fees.

Mbakwe Obi, the new counsel informed the court that his learned colleague who had been handling the matter before his disengagement had refused to hand over to him the case file and asked for an adjournment to enable him apply to the registrar of the court for the documents, a request, which was granted by the Judge, who then adjourned the matter to November 23, 2016.

The crisis in the Bilie Human Rights Initiatives erupted in June 2016, when Asiri, chairman of the Board of Trustees removed Amadi as the national president of the organisation and replaced him with Elder Michael George Umorem as the interim national president of the organisation pending when another election would be conducted to elect a new leader.

A copy of the letter written to Amadi by the Board of Trustees, dated October 13, 2016, “Titled Notice of Expiration of Your Tenure And Handover of the Leadership of Bilie Human Rights Initiatives to Elder Michael George Umorem,” reads in part: “We write in our capacity as the Incorporated Trustees of the Bilie Human Rights Initiatives exercising the powers of management of the organisation under the laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

“You were elected as the first EXCO of the organisation for a term of five years in office as the president and EXCO Members of this organisation which commenced operation on June 7, 2011 upon its incorporation, which means that your tenure expired after five years on 7 June, 2016. The Incorporated Trustees of this organisation have appreciated the efforts of the first EXCO members who pioneered the organisation from its birth in 2011 to 2016. Now we have decided to re-organise Bilie Human Rights Initiatives in Nigeria for more works ahead.”

The letter further stated, “Take note that we have dissolved the first EXCO by reason of the expiration of its tenure and its insubordination. We have appointed Elder Michael George Umorem from Akwa Ibom state as the interim President of Bilie Human Rights Initiatives with interim Exco till further notice. We have observed that the new Supreme Council of Elders as advertised in The Sun newspapers excluded the elders from Akwa Ibom State contrary to our vision that the three regions of Biafra land must be represented. We hope that the Supreme Council of Elders will treat the issue of the exclusion of Akwa Ibom urgently.”

However, Amadi dismissed his removal as infantile fantasy, and accused Asiri of trying to sabotage the organization by stoking crisis. He said that the legal adviser of the organisation had been blackmailing him in order to tarnish his image.

His words: “I have led this organisation since 2011, which I have been funding with my own resources and I have earlier made it clear that the organisation was not established for money making like other pro-Biafra organisations. But that is exactly what Asiri wants to do, and now he wants to change the structure to suit him. That is why he took my boy who I pay money to do work for me to replace me as the president of Bilie Human Rights Initiatives without any due process and no AGM of the organisation was summoned. Can you imagine that he has already failed in his bid to sabotage our effort.”

Amadi disclosed that they had decided to change their lawyer, Asiri, who lives in London and has been a thorn in the flesh of the organization by his conduct. Asiri even wrote a petition against the former judge who was initially assigned the matter, that he was the one who had been stalling the case from being heard earlier.

“We cannot continue in this manner and we have to change Emeka Asiri who was our legal adviser because he was the one who had been stalling the case because of the long adjournments he had always sought to suit his purpose otherwise the case would have been dispensed with long ago. So, we decided to engage a lawyer here in Nigeria and that is what we did today at the court by bringing a formal notice before the judge that we have changed our lawyer whose service has not been satisfactory,” Amadi said.

Meanwhile, Elder Umorem insisted that by the power of the letter of the Board of Trustees of the Bilie Human Rights Initiatives that he would continue to function as the interim national president of the organization, adding that Asiri had been informed of the latest development.