Senator Abaribe who stood surety for Nnamdi Kanu is ready to do it again

Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South, PDP), who signed Nnamdi Kanu's bail bond in 2017 before the separatist flouted all his bail conditions and fled Nigeria, says he's ready to do it all over again.

Kanu was re-arrested in June and extradited to Nigeria. He remains in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) and will be re-arraigned on July 26.

Abaribe tells Television Continental (TVC) that he stood surety for the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) because he is from the southeast and he considered it his responsibility to do so.

“There is a difference between jumping bail and escaping for your life. I think we have to make that very clear,” Abaribe says.

“At that time, I went back to court and went to the judge. We made a deposition and said on the basis of the principle of ‘last seen’, that the last people seen with him were the soldiers of the Nigerian army who were invading his father’s residence and therefore, they have the responsibility of talking about what happened.

“The judge ultimately ruled that they are revoking bail and issued a warrant of arrest, thereby removing us from the responsibility of providing him.

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“A lot of Nigerians didn’t know this when they were shouting that Abaribe should be brought to produce him.

Nnamdi Kanu during his trial in Abuja, on February 9, 2015/ AFP Pulse Live Kenya

“I didn’t feel betrayed. He escaped for his life. If he is running for his life, how would he communicate with me?

“I was surprised like everybody when he surfaced in Israel. I immediately wrote a letter to our foreign affairs ministry asking them to instruct our Nigerian ambassador in Israel to ascertain whether the person we saw in the photograph is actually this person but I never got a response,” he adds.

Asked if he will do it again, the senator says: “If the circumstances are the same, then why not?

“The first circumstance was that the judge said they needed a senator to be part of his sureties. So if a judge says that again, I don’t see why I won’t. I am a senator and I come from the southeast.

“I don’t think we will run away from our responsibility. He’s our son. He’s from our state.”

An 11-count charge bordering on terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory material, illegal possession of firearms, improper importation of goods, will be preferred against Kanu when his trial resumes.