Abaribe’s N100m bail bond: Court orders interim forfeiture
By A Federal High Court, Abuja, Wednesday, ordered Senator Eyinnnya Abaribe and two others who stood as sureties for the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to temporarily forfeit their N100m bail bond each.
Justice Binta Nyako also ordered that the N100m bail bond should be converted into cash and deposited with the registrar of the court.
The court ordered that the money should be paid within two months of the order and would be permanently forfeited if after six month they are unable to produce the IPOD leader to face his trial.
Kanu was arrested in 2015 on an 11-count charge bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony.
Six of the charges, including that of terrorism, were struck out early in 2017.
Senator Abaribe, Jewish priest, Emmanuel Shallon-Ben and Tochukwu Uchendu had stood as sureties for Kanu on April 24, 2017, after the court granted him bail on health grounds.
This was after spending 11 months in the custody of the Department of State Security (DSS).
In granting Kanu bail, Justice Nyako asked him to produce three sureties with N100m each.
Nyako said one of the sureties must be a senior highly placed person of Igbo extraction such as a Senator.
She held that the other surety must be a highly respected Jewish leader since Kanu said his religion was Judaism, while the third person must be a highly respected person who owns landed property and is resident in Abuja.
The judge said she was convinced that Kanu was ill and needed more medical attention than the Nigerian Prisons was giving him.
“The first defendant, Nnamdi Kanu, has appealed to the court for bail based on health grounds and it is only the living that can stand trial,” she said.
“So I am minded to grant him bail so that he can attend to his health and face his trial alive.”
However, Kanu has been missing since September 2017 when troops of the Nigerian Army invaded his country home in Abia State.
And this has put the sureties in collision course with the court,
When the mattere came up Wednesday, Senator Abaribe and Uchendu, who are the first and third surety were absent in court.
Counsel to the first surety, Chukwuema-Machukwu Ume, informed the court that Abaribe had gone on oversight function.
Also, counsel to the third surety, I. E. Chuddy said his client was ill and could not make it to the court.
This infuriated the judge who noted that the sureties were taking the court for granted.
She threatened to issue bench warrant against the sureties because “they are taking the court for a ride”
Earlier in his submission, counsel to Abaribe, Ume, told the trial judge that the Senator has embarked on an oversight function of the Senate, explaining his absence was due to the exigency of the function.
While the second surety, Emmanuel Shallon-Ben was present, counsel to the third surety, Chuddy informed the court that his client was unable to attend proceeding because of his illness.
Justice Nyako however noted that Abaribe’s absence would not have affected the business of the committee, adding the sureties were taking the leniency of the court for granted.
She said those whose applications to opt out of the sureteeship before court would not be granted until Kanu is produced.
Counsel to the second surety, Alloy Ejiemekor, prayed the court for opportunity to give evidential evidence why the sureties were unable to produce the defendant in the spirit of fair hearing.
According to him, the order of the court for the sureties to show cause is for them to be heard.
The matter was adjourned to March 28 to take all applications relating to the sureteeship.
Felix Omohomhion, Abuja