Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial: Abaribe not yet guilty – Legal practitioner

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, should be given the opportunity to explain why Nnamdi Kanu is not in court to continue with his trial before asking him to forfeit the N100 million bail bond, says a Legal practitioner, Barr. Lawrence Anyia.

Barr. Anyia who spoke to our correspondent in Jos on Monday while reacting to the federal high court decision on the bail condition of Nnamdi Kanu, said it is after when the court is not satisfied with his explanation on why the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra could not appear in court before Abaribe can be asked to pay fine.

“There is a legal snag because the law says you must be given the opportunity to explain why the accused person is not in court and it is only when the court is not satisfied with the reasons brought before it, that it will now ask the shorty of the accused person to forfeit the bail bond:

but from the cause of event, I do not know whether Sen. Abaribe has been given the opportunity to explain why Nnamdi Kanu cannot appear in court”.

It would be recalled that the Federal High Court recently in Abuja varied the bail conditions upon which the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu was admitted.

Justice Binta Nyako had made the variation in a ruling on the conditions of the bail she had granted Kanu in April 2017.

Nyako had therefore held that the three sureties, including Sen. Eyinnaya Abaribe, were compelled to within two months, pay N100 million each for their inability to produce the missing IPOB leader.

The three sureties had been made to sign a bail bond of N100m each which was backed by their landed assets whose documents were deposited in court.

However explaining further, Mr. Anyia said, “We should also realise the event that presided the disappearance of the IPOB leader.

There is this sudden Operation Payton Dance that was engaged by the Nigerian Army in the east because IPOB was demonstrating and because the Army felt that Kanu was heading IPOB,

they went to his home town and began to arrest everybody and even got some boys to drink mud water and by some twist of faith, Nnamdi Kanu escaped that brutal assault:

who knows if he was picked by the Army he might have been killed and if he was killed, who will be talking of Abaribe forfeiting bail bond.

“So these are the extenuating circumstances that have engineered Nnamdi Kanu’ escape and it is a jurisprudence the court must look into:

was he a free man when he was granted bail to allow him tread the streets of Nigeria and breath our air as a free man?, did he have that freedom as a Nigerian accorded to him by the court when he was granted bail?

“A man who was afraid for his life will certainly take measures to protect his life. So what I think the court should do is to allow Abaribe to come to court and say yes I took Surety for this man but events that have played out have shown why the man is not in court.

“Yes we know where he is and there are laws that enable extradition of offenders who have left the shores of Nigeria to another country.

Why won’t the legal system ensure the execution of those laws to enable the extradition of Nnamdi Kanu from either Israel or London back to Nigeria instead of asking Abaribe to pay N100 million when everyone knows the circumstances surrounding his disappearance which is largely own to threat to his life”, Barr. Anyia said.