Lawyers, acting on behalf of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, alleged, on Wednesday, that the Biafran agitators’ arrowhead was likely to have been killed by the Nigerian Army.
The legal team, led by Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, therefore, filed an originating motion, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/908/20017, before the Federal High Court in Abuja, praying for an order directing the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, to produce Kanu in court.
Loading ...Buratai is the sole respondent to the motion.
Part of the 12 grounds of the motion, stated that “rampaging soldiers”, under the Chief of Army Staff’s command, allegedly invaded Kanu’s house in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State, on September 14, 2017, abducted and possibly killed the IPOB leader and his other relatives in the process.
The lawyers claimed that soldiers had a direct contact with Kanu on September 14, when they allegedly invaded the IPOB leader’s house “on a murderous raid, where life and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless populace, leaving 28 persons dead and abducting many”.
“The invading soldiers, who had direct contact with the applicant on this fateful day (September 14, 2017), should be in a position to produce the applicant before the court.
“It is either the respondent’s rampaging soldiers abducted the applicant during this raid or must have killed him in the process,” part of the grounds of the motion read.
Apart from Ejiofor, others, whose names appeared on the court paper acting as Kanu’s lawyers, are Maxwell Okpara, Chudi Igwe, Miss Chinwe Umeche, Habila Turshak, P. M. Umegborogu and Augustine Ezeokeke.
The motion is titled ‘In the matter of an application by Nnamdi Kanu for prerogative of writ of Habeas Corpus Ad Subjiciendum to command the Chief of Army Staff to produce him in court’.
The motion was anchored on 12 grounds.
Following recent confrontation between soldiers and IPOB members during ‘Operation Python Dance’ by the Nigerian Army in the South-East region, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), had obtained an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja proscribing the group.
The proscription order has since been published in the Federal Government gazette as ordered by the court.
But IPOB had, through its lawyers, filed a motion on September 22, 2017, asking Justice Abdu Kafarati, who issued the proscription order, to reverse it on ground of alleged defects in the Federal Government’s ex parte application for the order.
In the motion filed on behalf of Kanu on Wednesday, the IPOB leader’s lawyers recalled that Kanu was first arrested on October 14, 2015 and was later arraigned alongside others before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges bordering on his agitation for secession of a Biafra republic from Nigeria on January 11, 2016.
They noted that Kanu was still enjoying the bail granted him by Justice Binta Nyako on April 25, 2017, when on August 25, the prosecution filed an application requesting the court to revoke the bail.
They also noted that hearing in the matter had been slated to hold on October 17, but before the date, soldiers, under Buratai’s command, “violently invaded the applicant’s home in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State, where scores of his relatives were brutally wounded and many killed.”
The lawyers stated as part of the grounds of the application, “The applicant, who was in the house during this bloody onslaught by the soldiers, has not been heard from or seen after this bloody attack on his home by the agents of the respondent since September 14, 2017.
“That the invading soldiers, in their desperate bid to ensure that the applicant was caught in the attack, climbed stairs to his bedroom upstairs to shoot him; walls of his bedroom were riddled with bullets.
“The invading soldiers, who had direct contact with the applicant on this fateful day (September 14, 2017), should be in a position to produce the applicant before the court. It is either the respondent’s rampaging soldiers abducted the applicant during this raid or must have killed him in the process.
“Section 40 of the Federal High Court Act empowers this court to order that a Writ of Habeas Corpus ad Subjiciendum; (A Writ directed to someone detaining another person and commanding that the detainee be brought to court) be issued on the respondent, to produce the applicant in court, particularly now his substantive criminal trial is coming up on October 17, 2017.
“The court is vested with inherent powers Under Section 6(6) (a)-(d) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as Amended 2011) to entertain this application and grant reliefs sought herein.”
A supporting affidavit, deposed to by a lawyer in Ejiofor’s law firm, Mr. Mandela Umegborogu, quoted Kanu’s younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu, as saying, “That on September 12, 2017, the soldiers of Nigerian Army, numbering about 200, fully armed to the teeth, invaded the residential home of the applicant (Kanu) in Afara-Uwku-Ibeku Umuahia, in Abia State.”
The affidavit added that Kanu was in his bedroom when soldiers allegedly invaded his house on September 14.
It stated that the soldiers shot sporadically for 40 minutes during the alleged invasion.
“That on September 14, 2017, the Nigerian soldiers invaded the applicant’s home for the second time, unfortunately on a brutal but murderous raid that left 28 persons dead and over 48 arrested and taken away to an unknown destination,” the affidavit stated.
It stated that Kanu “has not been seen or heard from” after the alleged invasion that took place on September 14.
It stated further, “That the search so far conducted by the applicant’s siblings has not yielded any fruit as the applicant is still missing.
“That the palace of (their) aged father, housing the applicant’s apartment, inclusive of the applicant’s building, was shattered with mortar bullets.
“That 28 people were shot in and around the applicant’s compound out of which few dead bodies were left behind by the rampaging soldiers.”
It stated that the whereabouts of Kanu and his father had been unknown since the September 14 “onslaught” by the soldiers.
The document also stated that appeal had been made to the Army to release Kanu “or his body for befitting burial if he was killed” to no avail.
It stated, “That the applicant is billed to return to court for full hearing, scheduled to commence his criminal charge No: FHC/ABJ/383/2015 between F.R.N. VS NNAMDI KANU & 4 ORS, but his fate is still unknown as the soldiers have continued to hold him tenaciously.
“That the applicant has been preparing for his court case, as his pre-trial conference on the matter with his lawyers was concluded in August 2017, preparatory for a full-blown hearing to commence on October 17, 2017.”
IPOB declares Kanu, father, mother missing
Meanwhile, IPOB has formally declared Kanu, his parents, Eze Israel Kanu and Ugoeze Kanu, missing.
In a statement in Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Wednesday by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group urged the international community to prevail on the Federal Government to produce Kanu.
The statement alleged that 28 persons were killed in Kanu’s compound after the alleged military invasion of his Afara-Ukwu home in Umuahia, Abia State.
The group said, “We, the Indigenous People of Biafra worldwide, under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to demand the urgent attention of the United Nations mission in Nigeria and especially that of the government of the United Kingdom to prevail on the present regime of President Buhari and his henchman, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to produce our leader or tell the world what has become of him.
“Nnamdi Kanu, who incidentally holds British citizenship, has been missing since a detachment of officers stormed his residence on Thursday, 14 September, 2017.
“Ever since this brutal assault that left 28 dead inside his compound, including two of his cousins, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, along with his parents, has not been seen.
“The video footage of the assault and the extent of destruction wreaked on his family home are in the public domain.
“The assailing soldiers also stole a lot of valuable materials from the palace of which we have corroborative evidence and incontrovertible proof that place the stolen items in the possession of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu; the newly appointed Abia State Commissioner of Police and other Nigerian security personnel.”
In another development, the Chairman, Centrium Initiative For Development And Fundamental Rights Advocacy, Dr. John Danfulani, has berated the Federal Government for declaring IPOB a terrorist organisation.
Danfulani, in statement, made available to our correspondent, said he did not believe that tagging IPOB a terrorist organisation and providing excuses for the deadly Fulani herdsmen were pillared on empirical facts or done in good faith.
He urged the Nigerian judiciary to live up to its billing of being the last hope of the common man by restoring the rights of the non-violent group to continue its agitation.
The statement read in part, “We hold this truth as self-evident that the struggle for self determination via a referendum by IPOB and any other group that so wish is a legitimate quest.
“CEDRA believes that constructive and direct engagement with IPOB remains the best way of solving this quagmire.”
Abaribe denies Senate query on Kanu’s bail bond
In a related development, the Chairman of the South-East Caucus in the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has denied being queried by the Senate for signing the bail bond for Nnamdi Kanu.
Abaribe, while raising a point of order at the plenary on Wednesday, faulted the report by a national daily (not The PUNCH) that the Senate queried him for standing as surety for Kanu.
He lamented that issues discussed at the closed-door sessions of the Senate were usually leaked to the media.
He said, “This morning, I was surprised to find ‘IPOB: Senators query Abaribe over Kanu’s bail’. We have always said it on this floor that anything the presiding officer says in the closed-door session, that is the sum total of our discussion. And I remember yesterday that three points were made as a result of our discussion, which was Nigeria’s unity and effort by this Senate to make sure we help in bringing peace to this country.
“The headline that purports to say that this is what happened in our closed-door session, which, of course, did not happen, does not, in any way, advance the cause of peace in this country.
“My constituents have been worried; they have called me and they have been asking me, and I have told them that it is not true and that I will bring it up on the floor and ask the entire Senate to please help us to ask the newspaper to produce whoever gave them this information.
“The Senate does not query any of its members; that is the first place where they failed in casting this headline, because each Senator knows what we discussed and what came out at the end of it.
“I wish to be given the opportunity to lay this newspaper and ask this Senate to please look at the attempt at driving a wedge between the South-East senators and the northern senators, because it was said here that the northern senators made a demand, which the South-East senators reluctantly agreed. Some people are bent on making sure that there is no peace but I know that God will not allow them.”
Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
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Source: Punch
