The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen.
Tukur Buratai, on Thursday, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to trash a
suit seeking to compel him to produce the ‘missing’ leader of the proscribed
Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.
The lawyers who were led by Mr
Ifeanyi Ejiofor, told the court that they had not seen or heard from their client
since September 14 when the Nigerian Army invaded his house “on a murderous
raid, where life and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless
populace, leaving 28 persons dead and abducting many”.
Pursuant to section 40 of the
Federal High Court Act, F12, LFN 2005 and section 6(6) (1) (4) of the 1999
constitution, as amended, Kanu’s lawyers applied for “an order of Habeas Corpus
ad subjiciendum, commanding the Respondent (Buratai), to produce the Applicant
in Court”.
However, in a counter-affidavit
he filed in opposition to the suit, Buratai told the court that Kanu was never
in custody of the Nigeria Army.
He maintained that contrary to
claims in the suit, soldiers who were deployed to the South-East for ‘Operation
Python Dance II, did not have any contact whatsoever with Kanu on September 12
or 14, or anytime thereafter as alleged.
The counter-affidavit read in
part, “That the applicant (Kanu) is not and has never been in his custody or in
the custody of any person, officer or institution receiving instruction
directly or indirectly from him.
“That the applicant was not at
any time whatsoever arrested, taken into custody or detained by the Officers
and men of the Nigerian Army.
“That the officers and men of the
Nigerian Army did not have any contact whatsoever or confrontation or any
operational engagement with the applicant on September 12 or 14, 20l7 or any
other date thereafter, contrary to the allegations in the affidavit in support
of the application.
“That the allegation of invasion
of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria by officers and men of the Nigerian Army,
especially the applicant’s home and or residence is totally false.”
He told the court that during “a
peaceful movement” that formed part of Operation Python Dance II, soldiers, on
September 14, pursued a truck loaded with arms and ammunition into a compound
which was identified in the suit as jointly owned by Kanu and his father.
He alleged that the fleeing truck
and its occupants ran over Army barricade and defied soldiers’ order stopping
them to be searched.
“That while on a peaceful
movement on the said September 14, 2017, the soldiers randomly conducted
stop-and-search operations as are necessary and it was during one of such
exercises in Umuahia, Abia State, that it flagged down a truck, which as it
turned out later, was loaded with arms and ammunitions of varying degrees and
descriptions.
“Rather than comply with the stop
order, the driver and other occupants of the truck recklessly ran over the
barricade mounted on the road by the soldiers and sped off, whereupon the
soldiers at the point gave a hot chase and called for reinforcement to enable
them pursue and arrest the fleeing vehicle. The soldiers did not fire any shot
at the fleeing truck in order to prevent the loss of lives.
“That the truck loaded with the
arms and ammunition was pursued into a compound which has now been described in
this application as belonging to and under the control of the applicant (Kanu)
and his father.
“That it was the legitimate
attempt by the officers and men of the Nigerian Army to arrest the fleeing
occupants of the truck and impound the truck that precipitated the deliberate
igniting of the ammunition in the truck by persons now believed to be IPOB
members.
“That the act of the IPOB members
resulted in sporadic explosions within the said applicant’s compound”, the
affidavit further stated.
“Throughout the duration of the
Operation Python Dance II, officers and men of the Nigerian Army obeyed the
Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct to the letter as there was no reported
case of indiscriminate shooting, unlawful arrest, detention or torture,
contrary to the wild, bland, untrue, incorrect, bogus and insipid allegations
contained in or oozed out in the affidavit of Prince Mandela Umegborogu Esq.
“The allegations of firing of
live bullets on the applicant’s relatives, killing of scores of persons,
wounding and arrest of many, attack and invasion of applicant’s home, barricade
at Isialangwa, arrest and torture of civilians by officers and me of the
Nigerian Army, as stated by the deponent, are a figment of his imagination as
same are not true.”
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Bukutu or what ever they call u, the whole world knows and heard what happened that 14th day of September 2017, so all this ur tales are just to get urself confused, any lawyer that asked u to put it that way was trying to mimick ur jelly brain, u cannot escape that, what ever lie u like tell, u can even say u pursue Boko Haram member and they ran into a house that was letter discovered to belonging to Nnamdi kanu and his father, u gave us a video of what u claimed happened that day before why did u include the truck ur people chase into IPOB house, sorry this did not work look for another one
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