Treason: Judge orders release of ACN candidate

Justice Adamu Bello of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday ordered the unconditional release of the Action Congress of Nigeria governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. John Akpanudoedehe from prison. Akpanudoedehe was arrested and arraigned in court for treason following political violence in the state on March 25. In granting the motion exparte filed by the counsel to the embattled politician, Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN), the Judge also ordered the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, and the prosecution to give effect to the order of the court made on March 30, which admitted Akpanudoedehe to bail. The motion exparte, Awodein said, was premised on the fact that the accused person, who had been granted bail, was slapped by plain-clothe security personnel in the open court and forcibly abducted while perfecting his bail conditions. The IG, according to him, ordered the arrest of Akpanudoedehe for the purpose of remanding him in jail, thereby inhibiting the process of perfecting his bail conditions. He added that the conduct of the police constituted an abuse of court process as it was designed to frustrate, irritate and annoy the accused/applicant. “The conduct of forcibly removing and abducting the accused/applicant and thus preventing him from perfecting the conditions of his bail by the IGP, his officers and the prosecution amount to usurpation of the authourity of this court,” he stated. He urged the court to grant the exparte as grave mischief, irreparable loss and damage would be occasioned if the respondent were first put on notice in the usual way. A 17-paragraph affidavit of urgency deposed to by Mr. Benson Igbanoi, a legal practitioner in Awodein’s chambers, averred that Akpanudoedeh was incancerated at the custody of the police and had been deprived of his freedom and personal liberty for just no cause. The ACN candidate was allegedly on Monday whisked to an unknown destination from his police detention cell in Abuja while three of his supporters who were arrested by the police in Akwa Ibom State were said to have died of food poisoning in detention. A plain-clothe security operative had slapped Akpanudoedehe, in the open court few minutes after he was granted bail over treason charges by Justice Adamu Bello of a Federal High Court in Abuja. The accused has been under police custody since March 25 when he was arraigned by the police on a four-count charge bordering on treason. Delivering his ruling on the bail application, the Judge held that the police had failed to establish a nexus linking Akpanudoedehe with the charge of treason. Besides, the court held that the police did not deny the averrements of the applicant which clearly cleared him from the offence. However, the ACN candidate was re-arrested and whisked away by policemen at about 2.45 pm while in the process of perfecting his bail conditions. By Friday Olokor Courtesy Of: Punch