The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe and two others who stood as sureties for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to pay N100 million each for their inability to produce the missing Biafran activist in court.
Justice Binta Nyako, who gave the order amending the conditions of the bail she had granted to Mr Kanu in April 2017, said the payment should be done into the court’s account within two months of the ruling.
Mr Kanu is being prosecuted before the court on charges of treasonable felony.
His trial had been earlier separated from that of his co-accused following his disappearance after a military invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia, in Abia State, on September 14, 2017.
The three sureties who guaranteed his bail had been made to sign a bail bond of N100m each which was backed by their landed assets whose documents were deposited in court.
But with the amendment ordered by the court on Wednesday, they are now required to deposit cash of N100m in the bank account of the court.
Justice Nyako ruled that the three sureties had two months to pay the sum of N100m each into the court’s account.
The judge reiterated that the order directing the sureties to pay the money was an order of interim forfeiture.
She fixed March 28 for the hearing of the motions filed by the sureties to challenging the duties imposed on them to produce the IPOB leader.
