The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has allegedly linked
Justice Ademola’s arrest with the unconditional bail he had earlier granted
Nnamdi Kanu which the Federal Government rejected.
This was made known in a statement from IPOB Media and Publicity
Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group noted that Kanu has spent one year in
detention illegally while the court of competent jurisdiction granted him
unconditional release on 16th and 17th December 2015 by magistrate and federal
high court Abuja but since then federal government, APC and the DSS were still
holding him and others in prison custody.
The statement reads in part
“Biafra will be a country where people of Africa will benefit, ‘the Africa will
be technologically, economically, politically and spiritually free through the
new republic’.
“However, we are aware of the systematic way of delaying the
members of IPOB who were detained illegally in all the prisons and security
cells across the country”.
In a related development, Kanu as sued the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) for contempt of
court over failure of the federal government to release him from detention.
On December 17, 2015, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, a judge of the
Federal High Court ordered Kanu’s unconditional release of Kanu.
In a statement at the weekend, Ifeanyi Ejiojor, counsel to Kanu,
linked the continued detention of the IPOB leader to President Muhammadu
Buhari’s comment at the presidential media chat on December 30, 2015, where he
said no court would grant him bail.
“The order made on December 17, 2016 by Justice A.F.A. Ademola,
directing the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu was served on the Department
of State Services (DSS) that same day the order was made,” he said.
“Still, the DSS failed, refused and/or neglected to obey the order
directing the unconditional release of Kanu, apparently due to reasons best
known to them, which has no justification under any law.
IPOB said none of the affected institutions of the government
affected by the order or the Federal Government has lodged an appeal against
the order directing the unconditional release of Kanu.
Ademola was one of the judges arrested by the DSS on Saturday on
the allegation of corruption.
“Nevertheless, it comes as a surprise on Friday 7th October 2016
at exactly 11:45am we received information that the Biafra land national
coordinator of the indigenous people of Biafra Mr.Chidiebere Onwudiwe who have
been arrested by DSS was called up in the federal high court Abuja court 7 of
Justice Ademola without the prosecutors been in court to defend the matter
against Chidiebere Onwudiwe” he stated.
“The DSS being the prosecutor of the matter were nowhere to be
found in the court on Friday 7th October, they are running because Chidiebere
Onwudiwe committed no crime against humanity or the federal government of
Nigeria” Powerful stated.
“Comrade Chidiebere Onwudiwe was arrested in the odd hour of
midnight in Igweocha (PH) Rivers state where he was sleeping on Friday 22nd
June 2016 still detained in DSS cell incommunicado and have not been taking to
any court since 128 days”.
“The lawyer incharge of the matter Bar, Ifeanyi Ejiofor who filled motion for his
bail in the federal high court 7 Abuja. The chief judge Ademola who adjourned
the matter to be on Tuesday 11th October for hearing because the DSS did not
produce mazi Chidiebere Onwudiwe the national coordinator of the indigenous
people of Biafra IPOB Biafraland in court” said powerful.
Meanwhile, a political pressure group, Concerned Abians for Good
Governance and Justice (CAGGJ) has commended the Department of State Services
(DSS) over last weekend’s arrest of some senior Judges across the country and
their subsequent arraignment yesterday for alleged corrupt practices.
This is even as the group flayed what it described as the ignoble
role played by Gov Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in the failed attempt to arrest
a Federal High Court Judge in Port Harcourt by operatives of the DSS.
In a statement by its chairman, Egwu D. Uwa, CAGGJ said Nigerians
have for years be yearning for a day like this, when men no matter how highly
placed would be made to account for what they have done with what were
entrusted in their care.
Uwa said as far as his group was concerned, what the DSS
operatives did was what Nigerians had
been yearning for over the years, stressing that it was only those who
benefitted from what have been happening in the judiciary over the years that would
condemn the action.
CAGGJ regretted that most of the politics-related judgments
delivered after the 2015 general elections were cash induced, saying no nation
would grow politically if this anomaly was not checked.
“It was glaringly clear that most of the politics-related
judgments delivered since after the2015 general elections were cash and carry
judgments and no good government that what its salt will sit idly and watch
things like this go on and that is why we are commending the DSS for this bold
step”.
Uwa said it was unfortunate that those who are condemning the
modus-operandi the DSS operatives adopted in arresting the Judges, have closed
their eyes to the huge cash recovered for the houses of the arrested judges.
Wondering where the Judges got such huge amount of money in both
local and foreign currencies, Uwa opined that if the operatives of the DSS had
not adopted such method, the deliveries could not have been made.
CAGGJ condemned Gov Wike’s action in allegedly using some party
loyalists to stop the arrest of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, saying
the action was capable of sending wrong signals to the public.
CAGGJ said if Wike had no special interest in the Judge, he
wouldn’t have left the Government House at about 1.30am to ensure that the said
Judge was not arrested.
“We don’t think if Gov Wike had no interest in the particular
Judge, he would have left Government House by the time he did to ensure that
the Judge was not arrested. Again his efforts in trying to defend the Judge
over the amount alleged to be in his house, left much to be desired”, Uwa said.
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