The Federal High Court
in Abuja has asked the three sureties in the trial of leader of the Indigenous
People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, to produce the defendant or risk going to
prison.
Kanu, who is currently
facing trial for alleged treason, was required to be produced in court by his
sureties.
Kanu’s sureties were
Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, a Jewish priest, Immanuu-El Shalom, and an accountant
resident in Abuja, Tochukwu Uchendu.
However, the IPOB
leader has not been seen after since September 2017.
Justice Binta Nyako had
asked the sureties to produce the defendant.
At the resumption of
the matter, however, a counsel for the sureties, Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh, a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said his client had not been served with court
papers relating to the order made by the judge.
He therefore made a
fresh application for an order of court demanding that the prosecution serves
the sureties with copies of the order, as made by the court.
In his response, the
prosecution counsel, Shaibu Labaran, urged the court to resist sacrificing the
demand for justice on the altar of technicalities.
Labaran countered the
submission of the defence that an enrolled order was necessary to ensure
compliance to the instructions made in court.
He described the fresh
application as a “conspiracy” to set back the matter before the court and
demanded its dismissal.
The presiding judge,
Justice Nyako granted the request by the defense, but noted that the
application was an evidence of their lack of readiness to proceed with the
matter.
“What is clear is that
you are not ready,” said Mrs. Nyako.
“The sureties are to be
served with the order of this court: to show why they should not forfeit their
bond or to produce the defendant in the next adjourned date, with the
alternative to go to prison,” she added.
Credit: Daily Post
Credit: Daily Post
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