Senate Minority Leader, Enyinaya Abaribe, has said he would stand surety for the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, given the same circumstances.
Abaribe had stood surety for Kanu before he jumped bail and fled the country in 2017.
When he featured on TVC’s Journalists Hangout on Wednesday, the lawmaker explained that he stood surety for Kanu because it was a condition imposed by the court.
According to Abaribe, the court ordered that one of the sureties must be a Senator, and as the Chairman of the Southeast Senators Caucus then, he had to offer himself.
Asked if he would agree to stand as Kanu’s surety again, Abaraibe said, “If the circumstances are the same, why not?”.
“He’s our son. He’s from our state (Abia). He (Kanu) said it himself that he ran for his dear life.”
“There is a difference between jumping bail and escaping for your life.
“I went back to court and deposed that on the basis of the principle of ‘last seen’, that the last people seen with him were soldiers of the Nigerian Army who were invading his father’s residence.
“The judge ultimately ruled that she was revoking bail and issued a warrant of arrest, thereby removing us from the responsibility of providing him. A lot of people did not understand,” he said
Abaribe said he did not feel betrayed that Kanu left the country, saying he ran for his life.
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