BY Dyepkazah Shibayan
Orji Kalu, chief whip of the senate, says he is ready to stand surety for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), if he is released from custody.
Kalu spoke on Political Paradigm, a recorded Channels Television programme, that was aired on Tuesday.
The former governor of Abia said he could either keep him at his home in Abuja or in Abia where he would counsel him.
“I will stand surety for him if the federal government wants to release him to me. I can keep him in my compound here in Abuja or Igbere (in Abia) and counsel him,” the senator said.
“I made his father the traditional ruler of their place when I was governor. I’m close to them but they didn’t listen to me but that will not make me abandon them.
“I will not abandon them.”
In October, the court of appeal in Abuja struck out the terrorism charge filed against Kanu.
The appellate court held that Kanu’s extradition from Kenya to Nigeria to stand trial was illegal.
But the government is yet to release the IPOB leader, but filed an appeal before the supreme court, as well as an amended charge before the federal high court.
Meanwhile, before the recent court proceedings, Kanu jumped bail in 2017.
Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, was one of his sureties when the IPOB leader was granted bail — after 18 months in custody.
The federal high court had ordered Abaribe to either produce Kanu or forfeit a N100 million bail bond.
In 2018, the Department of State Services (DSS) aarrested the lawmaker, but he was released after four days in custody.
In 2021, after Kanu was re-arrested, Abaribe had said he would stand as surety for the IPOB leader if he was asked to.
Speaking on the previous incident, Abaribe said Kanu fled for his life, adding that “there is a difference between jumping bail and escaping for your life”.
“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 south-east,” the lawmaker had said.
“I don’t think we will run away from our responsibility. He’s our son. He’s from our state.”
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