SENATE Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe has said that the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu did not jump and violate his bail conditions.
Abaribe, who stated this while appearing on TVC’s ‘Journalist Hangout’ on Wednesday, said the IPOB leader only escaped for his life when operatives of the Nigerian Army invaded his country home in 2017.
He said that he could not be arrested when Kanu fled the country because he informed the court of the circumstances that led to his disappearance. Hence, the court took away the burden of providing Kanu from him by revoking his bail and declared him arrested.
“There is a difference between jumping bail and escaping for your life,” he said.
“I went back to court and deposed that on the basis of the principle of ‘last seen,’ that the last people seen with him were soldiers of the Nigerian army who were invading his father’s residence. ”
“The judge ultimately ruled that she was revoking bail and issued a warrant of arrest, thereby removing us from the responsibility of providing him. A lot of people did not understand.”
He noted that he was ready to stand as Kanu’s surety again given that the circumstances were the same as in 2017.
The Nigerian government, through the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, claimed Kanu was extradited two days before he was brought before an Abuja on Tuesday, June 29.
Kanu had told the Federal High Court in Abuja where he was arraigned two days after he was arrested and brought into the country in June that he jumped bail because he believed he would have been killed if he had not fled the country.
He said that he had to leave the country after soldiers raided his residence in Umuahia, Abia State, stressing that the invasion of his residence by the Nigerian Army was the reason for his prolonged absence from court.
He faces an 11-count charge of treason, treasonable felony, terrorism, and illegal possession of firearms.
His trial resumes on the 26th of this month.
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