From: Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Well-meaning Nigerians, including former President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, and First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amechi, on Tuesday, expressed reservations on the bail conditions given to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, describing them as being too stringent.
Justice Nyako had, in her bail conditions, said that sureties for Kanu would include a senator, a prominent Igbo leader and a Jewish leader, who must deposit N100 million each and that the IPOB leader would not appear in a crowd of more than 10 persons.
But in their reactions, the elder statesmen questioned how the court expected Kanu to meet those conditions, which many said had not been given to anyone in any Nigerian court before.
The former Ohaneze boss, Ikedife expressed joy that Justice Nyako has found it necessary to grant Kanu bail and added that she should go ahead and dispose of the charges against him.
He said, “It is good that they have granted him bail. This is what I have been demanding for a long time. The next thing we expect them to do is to dispose of the charges brought against him one way or the other.
“They detained him for a long time and the question is, are they going to compensate him for long incarceration? He ought to have been released a long time ago, but those who kept him in detention did so for reasons only they can explain.
“Besides, the bail conditions are stringent. Is Kanu going to get all these people who have been burying money in various places to surety him? Where will he find the three people listed as those to surety him?
“However, the court saying that he should not appear in a crowd is something good because his presence in such a place could lead to violence, which may have undesired effect.”
For one of the few living Nationalist, Chief Amechi, Kanu was a prisoner of conscience and conditions of bail given him were to say the least unkind.
He said, “Granting bail to Nnamdi Kanu was long overdue. He is a prisoner of conscience and they incarcerated him this long because he is an Igbo man.
“The conditions given him to meet are very unkind. He should have been granted bail unconditionally. And how do they expect him to get people with the kind of money mentioned to surety him?”
A community leader, Chief Okoye said, “It is unfortunate that the judge gave such bail conditions. It shows that she actually did not want to grant him bail that is why he has given such stringent conditions as a ploy to keep him incarceration.