The Chief Magistrate Court at Wuse in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja has ordered the release, on bail, of 29 residents of Obigbo (Oyigbo), Rivers State, detained by the Nigerian Army following a recent military operation in the troubled community in the country’s South-South.
The bail followed an application this morning of Thursday, December 24, 2020, by International Human Rights Lawyer Richard Ebuka Okoroafor.
This comes a day after the widely published Special Report of the International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (Intersociety) on the alleged abduction of 400 Obigbo residents, among them “150 detained incommunicado in Abacha Army Barracks Abuja and other secret dungeons”.
We learnt that Barr Okoroafor filed a bail application for the first 30 of the victims but the 30th victim was unable to be granted bail on religious ground – he claimed to be a Jew and not a Christian, which made the court to request that he should look for a Rabbi to stand surety for him.
A source close to Barr Okoroafor told News Express: “As it stands now, their bails and releases are being perfected. Other batches among the 150 will have their bail applications processed after Christmas.”
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike reportedly ordered the military crackdown on Obigbo following the alleged killing of some security operatives, which he blamed on the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), but the separatist group denied the allegation.
Reviewed by Mgbara Zion Barisuka
on
December 24, 2020
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