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The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai on Thursday prayed the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit in search of to compel him to produce the ‘missing’ leader of the proscribed Indigenous Individuals of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.
A team of lawyers representing the embattled IPOB leader had in the suit, prayed the court to order Buratai to produce their client either dead or alive.
The lawyers who have been led by Mr Ifeanyi Ejiofor, told the court that they have not observed or heard from their client considering the fact that September 14 when the Nigerian Army invaded his residence "on a murderous raid, exactly where life and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless populace, leaving 28 persons dead and abducting many".
Pursuant to section 40 of the Federal High Court Act, F12, LFN 2005 and Section 6(6) (1) (four) of the 1999 constitution, Kanu’s lawyers applied for "an order of Habeas Corpus ad subjiciendum, commanding the respondent (Buratai), to make the applicant in court".
But in a counter-affidavit he filed in opposition to the suit, Buratai told the court that Kanu was never ever in custody of the Nigeria Army. He maintained that contrary to claims in the suit, soldiers who were deployed to the South-East for ‘Operation Python Dance II, did not have any contact whatsoever with Kanu on September 12 or 14, or anytime thereafter as alleged.
The Chief of Army Employees told the court that the Nigerian Army did not at any time arrest or take Kanu into custody within the period the military operation lasted, even as he denied allegation that soldiers invaded the IPOB leader’s home in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State.
A colonel attached to the Chief of Army’s workplace in the Army Headquarters, Abuja, Col. A.A Yusuf, who deposed to the counter-affidavit on behalf of Buratai, stated the alleged invasion of Kanu’s home was entirely false.
Having said that, the army boss told the court that his men only chased a truck he stated was laden with arms and explosives of diverse kinds, into a compound he mentioned was later found to belong to Kanu and his father.
The counter-affidavit read in element, "That the applicant (Kanu) is not and has under no circumstances been in his custody or in the custody of any individual, 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 guys 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 portion of Nigeria by officers and guys of the Nigerian Army, particularly the applicant’s dwelling and or residence is totally false."
He told the court that throughout "a peaceful movement" that formed element of Operation Python Dance II, soldiers, on September 14, pursued a truck loaded with arms and ammunition into a compound which was identified in the suit as jointly owned by Kanu and his father.
He alleged that the fleeing truck and its occupants ran over Aamy barricade and defied soldiers’ order stopping them to be searched.
Buratai insisted that soldiers that chased the truck into Kanu’s home did not fire any shot, saying it was the occupants of the fleeing truck that deliberately ignited the ammunition they were carrying.
"That while on a peaceful movement on the mentioned September 14, 2017, the soldiers randomly carried out cease-and-search operations as are vital and it was in the course of 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 cease order, the driver and other occupants of the truck recklessly ran more than the barricade mounted on the road by the soldiers and sped off, whereupon the soldiers at the point gave a hot chase and named 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 try 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. "That the act of the IPOB members resulted in sporadic explosions inside the stated applicant’s compound", the affidavit additional stated.
Buratai said his guys that participated in the operation, complied with Guidelines of Engagement and Code of Conduct that prohibit any form of human proper abuses, denying that they killed scores of IPOB members through the military exercise in the South East.
He stated: "Throughout the duration of the Operation Python Dance II, officers and men of the Nigerian Army obeyed the Guidelines 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 Mandela Umegborogu
"The allegations of firing of live bullets on the applicant’s relatives, killing of scores of persons, wounding and arrest of numerous, attack and invasion of applicant’s property, 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 very same are not true."
Having said that, Justice Binta Nyako will commence hearing on the suit on Friday.
The lawyers had in the suit they filed Kanu’s name, told the court that "on the 12th September, 2017, the Nigeria soldiers acting beneath express command handed down by the respondent, violently invaded the applicant’s household in Afara-ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia Abia State, wherein scores of his relative have been brutally wounded and lots of killed".
