NNAMDI KANU’S BAIL CONDITION: HON. JUSTICE NYAKO SHOULD CHARGE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT – JOE NWOKEDI Esq.

My attention was drawn to a statement credited to or rather made by Mr. Okoi-Obla Obono, the adviser to president Muhammadu Buhari on prosecutions, stating that should the Court eventually revoke the bail condition of Nnamdi Kanu, and he is nowhere to be found or be returned to the court, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who signed his bail condition and stood as surety for him will pay the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (N100,000,000.00) bail bond or be prosecuted by the court.
After reading the opinion of the learned friend, I nodded in shock and disbelief that such opinion should emanate from him, as the whole statement was quite laughable and also regrettable to have proceeded from the adviser to the president on prosecutions. No wonder the present administration has consistently been committing plethora of procedural and judicial breaches in the approach to some crucial and critical legal issues of national importance.
As a matter of principle and procedure, I am not supposed to comment on this issue since the matter is still pending in court but for the fact that it has been published in the National Newspapers as an opinion of the Special adviser to the president on Prosecution, it becomes paramount, appropriate and apposite to respond to the statement and the maker relying on prima facie legal procedures but not given evidence or dwelling too deeply into the issue since its still pending in court.
First and foremost, the Court should issue An Order to Produce Kanu otherwise known as Order of Mandamus against the Federal Government of Nigeria. This is because the subject matter in the case here is Nnamdi Kanu (the Res) and he has been declared missing because of the action of the Nigerian military which is an arm of the Federal Government of Nigeria and which they carried out in their wisdom or lack of it and the action is a total breach of the rules of Court guiding pendency of any matter in Court. The Federal Government has therefore committed a Contempt of Court through the deployment of soldiers to Abia State to harass, intimidate and finally maybe disappear with or cause the disappearance of the Res- Nnamdi Kanu who is standing trial in court, while the matter is still pending in the Court. The military (Soldiers)  that invaded the house of Nnamdi Kanu’s father in Afara Ukwu in Umuahia are the agents of the Federal Government and it is quite clear that they acted ultra vires the rules of Court. Nnamdi Kanu has a matter pending in Court and has never attempted to abscond from Nigeria under any guise even when he was aware that an application has been made to the Court for his bail condition to be revoked. If he has wanted to run away or abscond from justice or facing his trial in court he would have done so earlier, but he remained visible everywhere in Nigeria, until the military invaded his residence unlawfully and either allegedly disappeared with him, killed him  or cause him to disappear. The question now is this – When someone is on bail, can such a person still enjoy the rights granted to him under our laws? – The answer is yes. No one who is standing trial for a matter and has not been proved or pronounced guilty by our court is adjudged guilty by anyone or treated as guilty by anyone until such a person is proved or pronounced guilty by a court but the soldiers declared Nnamdi Kanu guilty before any court pronouncement and proceeded to invade his father’s house where he resides under the pretentious operation Show of Force or Python Dance exercise.  It was very clear with alleged evidential proof that the house of Nnamdi Kanu was raided by soldiers sent by the Federal Government of Nigeria on the approval of the President, the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief of Armed Forces. The same Presidency through the Attorney General and Adviser to the president on prosecution Mr. Okoi Obla Obono is bragging and boasting of dealing with sureties of Nnamdi Kanu if Nnamdi Kanu is not produced in Court when the court may finally revoke his bail conditions. What an irony and Legal accident. The presiding Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Binta Nyako should do well to make an order to produce Nnamdi Kanu to the Federal Government of Nigeria and equally sanction them for contempt of Court if the need be. It is an offence and abuse of Court process to destroy the res (the subject matter in dispute or major issue in any matter in court) when the issue or matter is still pending before a Court.
The Onus Probandi (burden of proof) of the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu, no longer rests with the Sureties in the matter (Senator Abaribe) but with the Nigerian soldiers sent by the Federal Government who are also the complainants in the matter. Federal Government cannot approbate and reprobate on this issue. They cannot bring a matter before a Court and go back to enforce the law by themselves through self help and still come back to the same Court to request that the Court should help them. That is a total abuse of the judicial process. If they have had confidence in the Court, they should have used or relied completely on the competence of the Court to resolve the issue by abiding by the court rules and procedures but they have chosen an illegal and unlawful means to approach the issue, while still looking for remedy from the same court whose practice procedures and rules they have violated.
By the action of the Federal Government, the onus to produce Nnamdi Kanu in court has been shifted from the sureties (Senator Abaribe & Co) to them. The Federal Government cannot eat their cake and at the same time, have it. It may be glaring that Nnamdi Kanu’s bail conditions may be revoked by the court as there is no doubt that he has breached the contents of his bail conditions but the Onus to produce him in court to answer to the charges against him in court should rest squarely with the Federal Government of Nigeria and no longer his sureties.
Court should therefore do the needful by issuing an order to produce Nnamdi Kanu to the Federal Government through or via her agency –the military- which has created the drama that put the whole situation  into jeopardy and state of precariousness.  They should equally charge Federal Government for Contempt of Court.