Judge orders FFK, Abaribe, to pay N100m each over Kanu’s absence in court

Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, has ordered that Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, Femi Fani-Kayode and Emmanuel Shallom Ben, all of whom stood sureties for the bail of  the leader of the now proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu in April last year, pay the sum of N100m each into the court’s account for their inability to produce the missing Biafran leader who went missing in September last year.

Recall that in April 2017, Justice Nyako granted Kanu bail. Kanu was arrested in October 2015 and has been standing trial on charges of treasonable felony.

Kanu's trial had been stalled since he went missing after a military invasion of his home in Abia state in September last year. Kanu however resurfaced in Israel in October this year. He has vowed to return to Nigeria to continue his trial.

The three sureties who guaranteed his bail had been made to sign a bail bond of N100m each which was backed by their landed assets whose documents were deposited in court. Justice Nyako this morning amended the conditions of the bails she gave in April 2017. The three sureties are now required to deposit cash of N100m in the bank account of the court. She ruled that the three sureties had two months to pay the sum of  N100m each into the court’s account.

The judge reiterated that the order directing the sureties to pay the money was an order of interim forfeiture.

She fixed March 28 for the hearing of the motions filed by the sureties to challenging the duties imposed on them to produce the IPOB leader.