The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has asked the Federal High Court, Abuja, to dismiss a suit, seeking to compel him to produce the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
Mr. Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, on Thursday brought an application before the court, asking the court to order Mr. Buratai to produce Mr. Kanu dead or alive.
Mr. Ejiofor told court that his client was last seen with the Nigerian Army on September 14 and that neither he (Ejiofor) nor Mr. Kanu’s family had seen or heard from Mr. Kanu since then.
Opposing the motion, however, Mr. Buratai through his counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde, told the court that Mr. Kanu was not and had never been in the custody of the Nigerian Army.
“The Nigerian Army did not at any time arrest or take Kanu into its custody within the period the military operation lasted in the South-east.”
The lawyer argued that there was no document before the court to prove that Mr. Kanu was in the custody of the army, noting that the onus was on Mr. Kanu to prove that he was taken by the army.
Mr. Kehinde urged the court to dismiss the application on the ground that it was laden with speculations, conjecture and assumptions which, he said, were not admissible in law.
A counter-affidavit deposed to by a colonel, A. Yusuf, also claimed that the alleged invasion of Mr. Kanu’s house during the period of the operation was false.
After hearing arguments from both counsel, Justice Binta Nyako adjourned the matter until December 13 to give her ruling.
(NAN)
