An Enugu North Magistrate Court,
on Tuesday, ordered the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Enugu
State and the Nigeria Prisons Service to produce 32 detained pro-Biafra
agitators.
The detained activists are members
of the Ralph Uwazurike-led Biafra Independent Movement faction of the Movement
for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.
They were arrested on May 22, while
parading through Enugu metropolis to celebrate the ‘Biafra Day.’
BIM, unlike MASSOB and the
Indigenous People of Biafra, mark the Biafra Day on May 22, rather than May 30,
which is the date the defunct Republic of Biafra declared independence from Nigeria
in 1967.
Shortly after their arrest, the 32
agitators were charged with treason and arraigned before the magistrate court,
where they pleaded not guilty.
They were subsequently remanded in
Enugu Prisons.
But their trial had stalled since
then, as the matter was adjourned on two occasions due to the inability of the
police and officials of the Enugu Prisons to produce them in court.
When the matter came up again on
Tuesday, the accused persons were again not in court.
Miffed at the development, the
defence counsel, C. O. Obiekwe, accused the Federal Government of persecuting
the agitators, who he said did not commit any offence.
He described the development as
‘anti-democratic.’
Obiekwe added that the prisons
authorities had no excuse for the failure to produce his clients in court.
“The prison authorities have no
genuine reason, the other time they said they had no member of staff, this time
no vehicle. By my checks, they brought 17 other accused persons to court today,
so why did they not go back to bring the other 32 persons?”
An official of the Enugu Prisons,
however, blamed the failure to produce the agitators on ‘logistics challenges.’
“We have over 102 inmates going to
court today, some went to Obollo-Afor, Amagunze, and several other places. So,
there is a shortage of vehicles.
“We prefer Fridays because we have
fewer cases. Other days we used to have 40 to 60, but today, we have the highest
number and most of our vehicles are engaged,” a Senior Prisons Assistant, Mr
Ude Ambrose, told the court.
The presiding magistrate, His
Worship Sam Okoro, ordered that the accused persons must be brought to court on
the next adjourned date, July 26.
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