The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered that the individuals who stood surety for the runaway leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu pay the sum of N100m as fines for the absence of the sectarian leader.
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Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court Abuja ordered that Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe alongside Femi Fani Kayode as well as two others pay the sum within two months for their inability to produce Nnamdi Kanu in court.
Justice Nyako gave the order on Wednesday in a ruling in which she amended the conditions of the bail she had in April 2017 granted Kanu.
Nnamdi Kanu is supposed to be standing trial before Justice Binta Nyako on charges of treasonable felony brought against him by the Nigerian Federal Government.
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.
As part of his bail conditions, the court had ordered that the sureties who stood for Nnamdi Kanu be made to sign a bail bond of N100m each backed by their landed properties with the documents deposited with the court.
The fresh amendment to the bail conditions now requires the sureties 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 and reiterated that the order directing the sureties to pay the money was an order of interim forfeiture.
She thereafter fixed March 28 for the hearing of the motions filed by the sureties challenging the duties imposed on them to produce the IPOB leader.