Dep Speaker, Wase, wants Sen Abaribe jailed

The Senate Minority Leader Eyinnaya Abaribe was pilloried on Thursday by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps, Ahmed Wase over his failure to produce Nnamdi Kanu to face prosecution.

Abaribe had stood as a surety for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader after Kanu was accused of secessionist agitations.

Ripples Nigeria further reported in 2019 that Abaribe and two others had stood as sureties for Kanu before he was granted bail by the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 25, 2017.

They are now grappling with the burden to produce him to enable continuation of his trial.

The inability of the three sureties’ to produce Kanu, made the judge, Justice Binta Nyako, order them on November 14, 2018, to each pay into the court’s account the N100m bond within two months.

Abaribe had also told the Court of Appeal in Abuja that his standing surety for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was illegal.

He, therefore, urged the court to relieve him of the suretyship for Kanu.

Read also: Some senators supporting Buhari blindly —Sen Abaribe

However, Wase opined that the Abia South senator should be imprisoned just as Senator Ali Ndume, who stood surety but failed to produce former Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) Chairman Abdulrasheed Maina, who jumped bail.

This was a sequel to the Point of Privilege Order raised by a member of the House, Sada Soli.

In the point of privilege, Soli expressed displeasure at House Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu’s remarks at a closed-door executive session last week that some APC members plan to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Wase said, “I see someone as Abaribe, a leader in the Senate, championing that. Yes, there are many flaws. He bailed Kanu Nnamdi and during the EndSARS (protests), we knew what happened. Kanu then, was the one who was asking for the heads of Tinubu, destroy this, destroying that in the nation.

“But we have allowed him. He knew what happened to Ndume. Ndume, for bailing Maina, was taken to prison for not producing him, but we allowed this man to go as an opposition person.”

By Mayowa Oladeji…

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