The Chief of Army Staff (COAS),
Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai has said that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was never taken into custody.
Buratai said this while responding to a suit filed by the IPOB leader’s lawyers ordering him to produce their client.
In
his counter-affidavit, the Chief of Army staff claimed that his men
never had contact with Kanu during the Operation Python Dance exercise.
According to Daily Post, Buratai, in his affidavit said:
“That
the applicant (Kanu) is not and has never been in his custody or in the
custody of any person, officer or institution receiving instruction
directly or indirectly from him.“That
the applicant was not at any time whatsoever arrested, taken into
custody or detained by the Officers and men of the Nigerian Army.“That
the officers and men of the Nigerian Army did not have any contact
whatsoever or confrontation or any operational engagement with the
applicant on September 12 or 14, 20l7 or any other date thereafter,
contrary to the allegations in the affidavit in support of the
application.“That the
allegation of invasion of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria by officers
and men of the Nigerian Army, especially the applicant’s home and or
residence is totally false.”He also said “That
while on a peaceful movement on the said September 14, 2017, the
soldiers randomly conducted stop-and-search operations as are necessary
and it was during one of such exercises in Umuahia, Abia State, that it
flagged down a truck, which as it turned out later, was loaded with arms
and ammunitions of varying degrees and descriptions.“Rather
than comply with the stop order, the driver and other occupants of the
truck recklessly ran over the barricade mounted on the road by the
soldiers and sped off, whereupon the soldiers at the point gave a hot
chase and called for reinforcement to enable them pursue and arrest the
fleeing vehicle. The soldiers did not fire any shot at the fleeing truck
in order to prevent the loss of lives.“That
the truck loaded with the arms and ammunition was pursued into a
compound which has now been described in this application as belonging
to and under the control of the applicant (Kanu) and his father.“That
it was the legitimate attempt by the officers and men of the Nigerian
Army to arrest the fleeing occupants of the truck and impound the truck
that precipitated the deliberate igniting of the ammunition in the truck
by persons now believed to be IPOB members.“Throughout
the duration of the Operation Python Dance II, officers and men of the
Nigerian Army obeyed the Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct to the
letter as there was no reported case of indiscriminate shooting,
unlawful arrest, detention or torture, contrary to the wild, bland,
untrue, incorrect, bogus and insipid allegations contained in or oozed
out in the affidavit of Prince Mandela Umegborogu Esq.“The
allegations of firing of live bullets on the applicant’s relatives,
killing of scores of persons, wounding and arrest of many, attack and
invasion of applicant’s home, barricade at Isialangwa, arrest and
torture of civilians by officers and me of the Nigerian Army, as stated
by the deponent, are a figment of his imagination as same are not true.”
Recently, the former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, told newsmen that Nnamdi Kanu fled to London through Malaysia.
His
revelation sparked outrage in some quarters, causing a human rights
group, Advocate of Social Justice for All [ASJA], to demand that Kanu
be extradited from the United Kingdom.
The Executive Director of ASJA, Asongo Venatius
who gave the warning at a press conference held in Abuja, said that the
UK should be ready for mass action if their demand is not met.