Abaribe Asks Appeal Court to Discharge Him as Kanu’s Surety

Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe has asked the Court of Appeal, Abuja, to discharge him from his earlier position as a surety to the self-acclaimed leader of the indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Abaribe, in an application filed at the appellate Court also asked the court to set aside the November 14, 2018, order of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The Senator and two others, Emmanuel Shallom-Ben and Tochukwu Uchendu, had stood surety for the bail of now dissapperaed IBOP leader, Kanu in the sum of N100m each.

Kanu’s whereabouts has continued to be enmeshed in one controversy or the other since the military’s invasion of his ancestral him in September 2017.

He was said to have been killed in the attack but recent revelation seem to suggest that he is currently taken refuge in Isreal.

His disappearance however has jeopardised the position of his sureties, who are now confronted with the huge task of producing him in court to face his trial or forfeit the bail bond of N100m each, they signed for Kanu’s release.

Trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako in her November 14, 2018 ruling, had held that Abaribe and the two other sureties owed the court the duty of producing Kanu, whose absence since 2017 has halted his trial on charges of treasonable felony brought against him by the federal government.

But the senator, through his counsel, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN), filed an amended notice of appeal and a brief of argument to challenge the Federal High Court’s decisions.

He cited Sections 55, 165(3), 167(3) and 488 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) to support his argument in the amended notice that a public officer such as a senator was legally exempted from standing surety for a suspect.