140 Ipob members remanded in custody after arrested while on their way to a funeral in Nsukka

ONE hundred and forty members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob) have been remanded in custody by an Enugu East Magistrates Court after they were charged with treason but pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Earlier this week, the 140 Ipob members were charged with treason after they were arrested while driving to a funeral in Nsukka in Enugu State. They subsequently appeared before Magistrate A.N Chioke in Enugu, where it was alleged that their actions were punishable under Section 516 (A) of the Criminal Code of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria  as applicable in Enugu State.

Pleading not guilty when the charges were eventually read out, the defendants, who were brought to the court in three 608 buses and one 18-seater bus, were said to have conspired to commit treasonable felony. They were however, arraigned outside for about two hours as the court room could not accommodate them.

Defence counsel Osita Abalu applied for their bail on the grounds that there was no evidence to back up the charge. He said that the prosecution had failed to provide probable cause why the defendants should be remanded in court in line with Sect. 234 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws (ACJL) of Enugu State, 2017.

He urged the court to exercise its powers under Section 225 of the same law and grant bail to the defendants. Mr Abalu said that although the offence for which the defendants were charged was punishable with life imprisonment, under Section 88 of the ACJL, the magistrates court was qualified to grant them bail.

Also, Mr Abalu urged the court to order the release of the four buses conveying the defendants to the venue of the burial they were attending. Another of their counsels Mr Okeke, told the court that it was ridiculous for the prosecution to claim that the defendants attempted to overthrow President Muhammadu Buhari as they were arrested on their way to a funeral and wondered how that could translate to over throwing the government.

Mr Okeke said: “President Muhammadu Buhari is in Abuja, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is in Enugu while the defendants were arrested in Nsukka. The defendants were arrested with no evidence, not even a razor blade and they were going to a burial.”

He added that the prosecution deliberately brought the matter to the magistrates court just to punish them. Mr Okeke urged the court to grant them bail in the most lenient means but prosecution counsel Paschal Nwachukwu opposed this saying that the law empowered prosecutors to bring defendants to a magistrate for remand.

He said that a court could not grant bail in a matter it had no jurisdiction over. In her ruling, Magistrate Chioke agreed with him and declined jurisdiction in the case, remanding the defendants at Enugu Prisons.

Magistrate Chike then urged the defence team to make application in the appropriate court. She then ordered the release of the four vehicles to their owners on bond and on the provision of proof of ownership and particulars.

“The charge the defendants are remanded for is treasonable but the prosecution did not list any exhibit of weapon of warfare against them. The only document against them before the court is the charge sheet and this looks to me like a trumped up charge,” Magistrate Chioke said.