Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the principal surety to the
embattled self-acclaimed Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu may on July 26 apply for
refund of his N100M forfeited to the federal government when Kanu jumped bail.
Kanu, who jumped bail since 2019, has just been rearrested
and will appear in Federal High Court for continuation of his criminal trial on
terrorism charges.
The senator representing Abia North Senatatorial district in
the Senate had forfeited the huge sum in liue of his inability to produce Kanu
in court to face the criminal trial.
Abaribe was said to have been given opportunities five times
to produce Kanu as required by law but could not meet up.
In one of his appearances in court, the Senator has alleged
that that the federal government caused Kanu to jump bail and escaped out of
the country when armed soldiers allegedly invaded his family house.
He prayed the court to hold the federal government
responsible for the escape and spare him the pain of forfeiting the bail bonds
Justice Binta Nyako, however, rejected the prayers of the
surety and ordered him to either forfeit the bail bonds or stand in place of
Kanu for criminal trial on terrorism and reasonable felony punishable with
either death or life imprisonment.
The Senate minority leader was said to have subsequently
opted for lesser punishment and thereafter forfeited the huge sum.
Although Abaribe could not be reached for comments,
one of his lawyers, Maxwell Okpara, said that the legal team of Abaribe will
apply for refund of the money for their client.
“It is a settled law that once escapee defendant in a
criminal matter is rearrested, the surety who forfeited bond must be refunded.
“It does not matter whether the escapee accused person is
rearrested by the surety or somebody else as in the instant matter. The bottom
line is that our client must be refunded to the tune of N100M he had earlier
forfeited in the course of the suretyship,” the lawyer said.
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