Abaribe: Arewa Youths Kick Against Senator Ndume’s Detention

Posted by African Examiner African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Wednesday, November 25th, 2020

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has frowned at the detention of Senator Ali Ndume by a Federal High Court order, after he was unable to produce the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Force, Abdulrasheed Maina.

African Examiner recalls that Justice Okon Abang had directed that Ndume, the Senator representing Borno South, should be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Reforms Centre since he served as surety for Maina who has refused to appear before the court and this has led to the revocation of his bail.

Reacting to this development, the National President, Alhaji Yeriam Shettima, in a statement signed by its, AYCF wondered why the same court has: “not ordered the detention of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who stood as surety for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, who also jumped bail and currently nowhere to be found.”

“We, as a youth group from the north, find the arrest and remand in prison of Senator Ali Ndume because fugitive Abdulrasheed Maina had jumped bail, as unfair.

“Whether Maina committed an offence or not, we believe it amounts to setting a bad example if Senator Abaribe, who stood surety for terrorist Nnamdi Kanu is still walking the streets as a free man.

“We cannot fathom why Senator Abaribe who secured bail for IPOB’s Kanu whose action has since been declared treasonable and a terror to the country and is still on the run, has never been sanctioned for standing surety.

“In the interest of equity, fairness and balance, Senator Abaribe should be immediately arrested and remanded in prison too until Kanu is turned in or he turns himself in.

“Both Ndume and Abaribe are senators in the country, so Abaribe cannot be said to be higher than Ndume.

“Both are lawmakers by the grace of our constitution and the votes of their constituents.

“Most importantly, we have a duty as a country to demonstrate that no one citizen is above the other.

“Significantly, Ndume’s case is such that Maina is still a suspect being tried by the law and no sentence has been passed yet on him by any court of competent jurisdiction.

“Still this can’t be said of Nnamdi Kanu and his treason case.

“We are therefore, very disturbed that this is happening to Ndume at a moment democratic power is mainly in the hands of people from Ndume’s immediate constituency.

“It is the kind of development that gives people room to accuse the Federal Government of selective application of justice.

“We, therefore, call on President Buhari to intervene and put an end to this embarrassing selectivity against one of the North’s exceptionally vocal, fearless and pro-masses member of the National Assembly.”

African Examiner reports that Abaribe had filed a suit to discharge himself as a surety to Nnamdi Kanu but the court is yet to rule on his application.