The minority leader in the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, the surety of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, is set to apply for a refund of his ₦100M forfeited to the federal government when Kanu jumped bail.
Recall that the IPOB leader who jumped bail in 2019 has been arrested and will appear in Federal High Court for the continuation of his criminal trial on terrorism charges.
Abaribe had forfeited the sum of ₦100M over his inability to produce Kanu in court to face the criminal trial.
The lawmaker representing Abia North Senatorial district was given opportunities five times to produce Kanu as required by law but could not meet up.
Senator Abaribe in one of his appearances in the court had alleged that the federal government caused Kanu to jump bail and escaped out of the country when armed soldiers allegedly invaded his family house.
The lawmaker prayed that the court hold the federal government responsible for the escape and save him from 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 a reasonable felony punishable with either death or life imprisonment.
The Senate minority leader was said to have subsequently opted for a lesser punishment and thereafter forfeited the huge sum.
Meanwhile one of his lawyers, Maxwell Okpara, who spoke with Daily Post noted that the legal team of Abaribe will apply for a 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.
This article was originally published on Nigeria News