Army boss tells Abuja high court that Nigerian military never arrested Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu

CHIEF of army staff Lt General Tukur Buratai has told an Abuja high court that he has no idea of the whereabouts of Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu dismissing claims that he is being held by the military.

On September 14, the Nigerian Army visited Mr Kanu's home in Umuahia and Ipob claims that soldiers arrested their leader and have kept him incommunicado ever since. Taking the Nigerian Army to court, a team of Ipob lawyers asked the judge to order General Buratai to produce Mr Kanu dead or alive.

Responding to the suit, however, General Buratai told the court that he has no idea where Mr Kanu is and asked that the suit be dismissed.  Ipob's lawyers who were led by Ifeanyi Ejiofor, told the court that they have not seen or heard from their client since September 14 when the Nigerian Army invaded his house on a murderous raid, where live and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless civilians, leaving 28 persons dead and abducting many.

However, in a counter-affidavit he filed in opposition to the suit, General Buratai told the court that Mr Kanu was never in the custody of the Nigeria Army. He maintained that contrary to claims in the suit, soldiers who were deployed to southeast Nigeria for Operation Python Dance II, did not have any contact whatsoever with Mr Kanu on September 12 or 14, or anytime thereafter as alleged.

General Buratai told the court that the Nigerian Army did not at any time arrest or take Mr Kanu into custody within the period the military operation lasted. He also denied the allegation that soldiers invaded the Ipob leader’s home in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia in Abia State.

Nigerian Army spokesman Col A A Yusuf, who deposed to the counter-affidavit on behalf of General Buratai, said the alleged invasion of Mr Kanu’s house was totally false. He told the court that his men only chased a truck that was laden with arms and explosives of different kinds, into a compound, which was later discovered to belong to Mr Kanu and his father.

Col Yusuf said:  “That the applicant Mr Kanu is not and has never been in General Buratai's custody or in the custody of any person, officer or institution receiving instructions 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 told the court that during a peaceful movement that formed part 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 Mr Kanu and his father. He alleged that the fleeing truck and its occupants ran over an army barricade and defied soldiers’ order stopping them to be searched.

General Buratai insisted that soldiers that chased the truck into Mr Kanu’s house did not fire any shot, saying it was the occupants of the fleeing truck who deliberately ignited the ammunition they were carrying. According to the army boss, his men that participated in the operation, complied with the Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct that prohibit any form of human right abuses, denying that they killed scores of Ipob members during the military exercise in the southeast.