A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Wednesday, threatened to issue a bench warrant for arrest of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and two other persons that stood surety for leader of the Indegeniuos People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
Justice Binta Nyako recalled that Senator Abaribe representing Abia South Senatorial District, a Jewish High Priest, Emmanu El- Salom Oka BenMadu and an accountant, Mr. Tochukwu Uchendu, undertook to ensure Kanu’s availability to face the treason charge against him.
Meanwhile, the Judge has however ordered that the said sureties should in the interim, forfeit the N100million bail bond each signed to free Kanu from prison custody.
“The court hereby order the sureties to in the interim, deposit the bail bond in the court within two months. This order is going to pend in the interim for six months”, Justice Nyako said.
28 March has been fixed to hear applications the sureties filed to adduce reasons they could not produce Kanu in court to continue his trial.
In his response, Abaribe’s lawyer, Mr. Chukwuma Umeh, SAN, told the court that his client pleaded to be exempted from the proceeding as he joined the Senate Committee on Niger Delta on an oversight function.
In the same vein, counsel to the Jewish Priest, Mr. Aloy Ejimakor, explained to the court his client was sick and on admission in Port Harcourt hospital.
While the third surety was present in court, Justice Nyarko was displeased by reasons Abaribe and the Jewish Priest gave for their absence in court. She however threatened to order their immediate arrest.
Talking about Abaribe, Justice Nyarko said, “I shall order his arrest. I am taking today’s proceeding very serious. The sureties have taken this court for granted for too long. The appearance of the sureties is bewteen them and the court, not even the prosecution.
“They had an undertaken before the court that anyday the Defendants are wanted that the will produce them. They have failed to produce him.
“Though each of the sureties have applied to be excused, but they can’t be excused at this point. You only have two options, produce him or forfeit your bail bond.
“This should serve as a lesson to all of you that before you take anybody on bail, you must be certain that it is a person that you can vouch for”, Justice Nyako fumed.
Meanwhile, Abaribe’s lawyer told the court that his client earlier wrote a letter to the Nigerian Ambassador to Israel, seeking to confirm the veracity of claims that “One Nnamdi Kanu” was sighted in the country.
However, Justice Nyako said she was not interested in the letter or its outcome.
“If at the end of the day you do not produce my own Nnamdi Kanu, all the sureties will be in serious trouble.
“Whether my Nnamdi Kanu is in Saudi Arabia or in even in nearby Ghana, what matters at this point is that these surties made an undertaken that he will not leave the shores of this country.
“They have also failed to produce him or to show that he is dead. I gave him to them and they have lost him. So all I am saying is that they should bring back my own Nnamdi Kanu that I released to them,” the Judge added.
