Activist lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, on Tuesday disclosed how the Chairman of the South East Senate Caucus, Eyinnaya Abaribe can avoid ending up in prison over the declaration by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu that he won’t return to court.
Adegboruwa said Abaribe and others could avoid going to prison by applying to be discharged from the matter.
Speaking with DAILY POST, the Human Right lawyer gave reasons why the lawmaker may not be sent to prison over Kanu.
Following his struggle for secession, the Nigerian government had dragged Kanu to court.
The IPOB leader was, however, granted bail by Justice Binta Nyako of an Abuja Federal High Court.
Kanu’s bail was perfected after Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, Tochukwu Uchendu and Ben Elshalom, a Jewish priest agreed to sign his bail bond.
In September 2017, Kanu disappeared following a military invasion of his residence in Afaraukwu community in Abia State.
However, the IPOB leader resurfaced last week’s Friday in Jerusalem.
In his speech, Kanu vowed never to return to court for his trial.
“(The) Nigerian court is a kangaroo court. I did not jump bail. I left because the court failed to protect me. I shall not be honouring the court. I cannot be tried by a court I do not recognize. Nigeria cannot jail me,” he had said.
However, Adegboruwa stated that with Kanu’s remark, only the trial judge can decide to send Abaribe and the other two to jail.
Adegboruwa said, ” In our law when a person is charged to court, his right to liberty and movement are circumscribed and curtailed. So he will now apply for bail as a temporary exercise to that right of liberty with the condition to guarantee that he will appear in court to face his trial.
“In judging that bail, the court will request for conditions to ensure his appearance that was what led to the necessity of surety, somebody to vouch that the accused person will appear in court.
“In the case of Nnamdi Kanu, he was granted bail and he provided sureties one of whom was Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, the judge granted bail and asked the sureties to pay the sum of N100m or so, what this means is that if Kanu does not appear for his trial at the appointed time, the sureties will apply to be discharged from the matter.
“The judge ruling on that application has two options, he can ask the sureties to forfeit the main sum, that is the amount on which the bail was granted or he can release the surety on first hand, these are the conditions the judge may impose.
“So if Kanu does not appear, what happens to Abaribe is at the discretion of the judge handling the case, whether to discharge him as a surety or ask him to forfeit the amount that was placed as bond for the suretyship, but Abaribe can’t stand in to replace Kanu in court because criminal offence is personal, the court can’t substitute Abaribe for Kanu.
“I think generally, it’s quite unfortunate of how this has happened and more now that we can’t verify exactly what happened because Kanu is claiming that the Nigerian government has treated him so bad, so its a problem and its creating challenge for us at the criminal justice administration.
“I think the government has a lot to explain to us, more so that the Israeli government has said Kanu is not in Israel. The government should let us know what is going on because there is no way Kanu could have left this country without security agency.”
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