The Federal High Court in Abuja has asked the three sureties in the trial of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, to produce the defendant or risk going to prison.
Kanu, who is currently facing trial for alleged treason, was required to be produced in court by his sureties.
Kanu’s sureties were Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, a Jewish priest, Immanuu-El Shalom, and an accountant resident in Abuja, Tochukwu Uchendu.
However, the IPOB leader has not been seen after since September 2017.
Justice Binta Nyako had asked the sureties to produce the defendant.
At the resumption of the matter, however, a counsel for the sureties, Chukwuma Machukwu Umeh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said his client had not been served with court papers relating to the order made by the judge.
He therefore made a fresh application for an order of court demanding that the prosecution serves the sureties with copies of the order, as made by the court.
In his response, the prosecution counsel, Shaibu Labaran, urged the court to resist sacrificing the demand for justice on the altar of technicalities.
Labaran countered the submission of the defence that an enrolled order was necessary to ensure compliance to the instructions made in court.
He described the fresh application as a “conspiracy” to set back the matter before the court and demanded its dismissal.
The presiding judge, Justice Nyako granted the request by the defense, but noted that the application was an evidence of their lack of readiness to proceed with the matter.
“What is clear is that you are not ready,” said Mrs. Nyako.
“The sureties are to be served with the order of this court: to show why they should not forfeit their bond or to produce the defendant in the next adjourned date, with the alternative to go to prison,” she added.
