JUST IN: Judge orders Abaribe, others to pay N100m over Nnamdi Kanu’s absence

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the
Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe and two others who stood as sureties for
the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to pay
N100 million each for their inability to produce the missing
Biafran activist in court.

Justice Binta Nyako, who gave the order amending the conditions
of the bail she had granted to Mr Kanu in April 2017, said the
payment should be done into the court’s account within two months
of the ruling.

Mr Kanu is being prosecuted before the court on charges of
treasonable felony.

His trial had been earlier separated from that of his co-accused
following his disappearance after a military invasion of his home
in Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia, in Abia State, on September 14, 2017.

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.

But with the amendment ordered by the court on Wednesday, they
are now required to deposit cash of N100m in the bank account of
the court.

Justice Nyako 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.