BEVERLY HILLS, November 17, (THEWILL) – Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has stated that Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is not and has neither being in the custody of the Army nor in the custody of any person, officer or institution receiving instruction directly or indirectly from him.
Gen, Buratai stated these in a counter-affidavit he filed in reaction to a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja in Kanu’s name by a team of lawyers representing the embattled IPOB leader led by Mr Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
The suit seeks, among others, for “an order of Habeas Corpus ad subjiciendum, commanding the Respondent (Buratai), to produce the Applicant in Court”, claiming that the applicant is in the custody of the military.
The lawyers 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 life and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless populace, leaving 28 persons dead and abducting many.”
But, in the counter-affidavit deposed to on his behalf by Col. A.A Yusuf, attached to the COAS’s office at the Army Headquarters, Abuja, Gen. Buratai denied the plaintiff’s claim insisting that the soldiers had no contact with Kanu.
He revealed that soldiers chased a truck laden with weapons into a house said to belong to Kanu’s father in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State, on September 14, the day Kanu was last seen in public, adding that the owners of the truck detonated the explosives in order to frustrate the move to arrest them by the troops
“During a peaceful movement which was part of the Operation Python Dance II on September 14, some soldiers saw a truck and flagged it down, but the truck and its occupants ran over Army’s barricade and defied soldiers’ order stopping them to be searched,” he said.
“The soldiers pursued the fleeing truck, loaded with arms and ammunition, into a compound which turned out to be the one the applicant (Kanu) claimed to belong to him and his father.
“It was the legitimate attempt 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.
“The act of the IPOB members resulted in sporadic explosions within the said applicant’s compound.
“The applicant (Kanu) is not and has neither being in our custody nor in the custody of any person, officer or institution receiving instruction directly or indirectly from him.
“The applicant was not at any time whatsoever arrested, taken into custody or detained by the Officers and men of the Nigerian Army.
“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.
“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.
“The allegations of firing of live bullets on the applicant’s relatives, killing of scores of persons, wounding and arrest of many, attack and invasion of applicant’s home, 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 same are not true.”
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