Editorial: Buratai’s plea for court to quash suit compelling him to produce Kanu, illogical, perversive

By Chukwuemeka Chimerue || Chief Editor, The Biafra Times

November 23, 2017

The motion filed at an Abuja High Court by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai to dismiss the application by Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, seeking to compel him to produce his client; the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, lacks merit and sense of reasoning.

The Army Chief, through his lawyer, Mr. Akinlolu Kehinde had argued that Kanu was not and had never been in the custody of the Nigerian Army, adding that they did not at any time arrest or take Kanu into its custody within the period the military operation lasted in the South-East.

Kehinde further argued that there was no document before the court to prove that Kanu was in the custody of the army, noting that the onus was on Kanu to prove that he was taken by the army.

However, Is it not an irony that while the Nigerian government is pressurizing the Court to compel the Sureties; Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and others to produce Kanu in Court, the Chief of Army Staff on whose instance and by implication, the Sureties were not able to fulfil their obligatory duties, is asking the court to struck out the charges which they have not been able to defend.

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Recall that few days after the government announced the plan to call for a revocation of Nnamdi Kanu’s bail, the Nigerian Army announced it would commence an operation in the South-east. Operation Python Dance was an exercise to checkmate criminality and other forms of vices in the region, as claimed by the army.

However, by the time the exercise commenced in Abia State, Kanu’s home state, we began to hear and witness faceoffs between IPOB family members and soldiers with the latter killing scores of innocent and unarmed agitators and violently invading homes not mapped out as points of their duties.

The Army Chief played a major role on circumstances leading to the disappearance of the IPOB leader through the instrument of their unlawful invasion at the latter’s compound. Senator Abaribe, standing as Kanu’s surety, had a valid reason in his submission to court that but for the violent military raid at Kanu’s residence, he would have fulfilled his obligatory function of producing Kanu to court on the 17th of October.

It is therefore baseless, perversive and a height of irresponsibility that after extrajudicially invading Kanu’s home whose matter is still pending in court, the Army Chief summoned the courage to ask same court to dismiss the application even when it is predicated on facts and merit.

Read Also: Biafra: IPOB's Head Of Directorate Debunks News Of Kanu's Sack, Says He Remains IPOB Leader Whether Dead Or Alive

On the other hand, the court would have noted that Kanu had always presented himself for trial hitherto to this incidence and as a result, should ask the Army Chief to explain reasons leading to their unlawful invasion which has incapacited the sureties in fulfilling their mandate.

Suffice it to say that the sinister or ulterior motive behind the military invasion at Kanu’s private residence and the Army’s claim of not having the former in their custody, is simply to prolong the detention of other Biafra detainees and frustrate their civil trial at the lawcourt, thereby endangering and subverting the Will and authority of the judiciary in the long run.

This appears to be the more reason, the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, should look inwardly before delivering her judgement on the matter on the 13th of December, 2017. Since the sureties has given valid reasons for not presenting Kanu in court, the attention should shift from them and the beam light focused on the Army to ensure they do not scuttle the judicial process. Let every party involved in the matter answer to his deeds and misdeeds. The Army Chief in particular, must take full responsibility for his illegal and wanton actions towards the plaintiffs in this matter.


The Biafra Times
Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah
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