Edemobi: Why Nnubia remains in jail

Five months on, Dr. Ignatius Nnubia, an Enugu-based oil magnate and chairman of Nowas Group, remains in prison custody over allegations of involvement in the kidnap of Dr. Francis Edemobi, younger brother to Professor Dora Akunyili, Nigeria’s Information Minister. Edemobi is undergoing trial alongside eight others. (Pictures left and right show Nnubia in the dock, and Kutigi, Chief Justice of the Federation)

The Nnubia case has been characterized by certain puzzles. First, six judges have respectively handled the trial without taking plea. Second, suspects who confessed to crime hardly appeared in court. As a result, Nnubia and the other accused persons have continued to languish in prison custody, as the courts deny them bail.

Thus the trial continues to run into a hitch, as Enugu state judiciary looks helpless while the police that preferred the criminal charges on the suspects appear unwilling to prosecute the case. This situation has informed the continued incarceration of the accused persons without justice since December last year they were taken into custody.

The trial of the suspects started from the Magistrate Court in December from where Nnubia and other suspects were remanded in Enugu prison. Later, the matter proceeded to the State High Court following the legal opinion of the state’s Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). The DPP, under the office of the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Nduka Ikeyi, recommended the trial of the accused, claiming to have established a “prima facie” case against them.
Enugu state government had claimed that the accused persons have serious cases to answer going by the “weighty evidence” brought against them by the police. The State Chief Judge, Justice Innocent Umezulike, promptly assigned the case to Justice Scholastica Amanoh for trial, but the case was soon transferred from her court to two other judges. And the two judges, inexplicably, withdrew from the case shortly after and returned the case files back to the Chief Judge who, in turn, returned them to Justice Amanoh for the second time.

Justice Amanoh, actually, proceeded with the trial but she could not make any progress because of the failure of the state police command to produce all the accused persons in its custody in court. Expressing anger at the undue delay of the case by the prosecution, Amanoh once ordered the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Zarewa, to produce the accused before her court, but the order was not complied with as the police, working with the DPP, kept the suspects away from trial.

The suspects whose continued absence in court has raised questions as to the actual motive of the police and the government in the matter include Mohammed Ali, who reportedly named Nnubia as sponsor of the kidnap gang whose leader, Sunny DAF, was shot dead by the police on the day their victim (Edemobi) was rescued from their hideout around the Ebeano Tunnel in Enugu metropolis.

Another suspect whose absence from court has seriously held up the trial were Chinedu Uhullah (alias Onye Army), a dismissed army officer, who was said to have been tried by the military authorities and found guilty of taking part in the kidnap of Edemobi, a medical doctor.

Similarly, Jashua Ayuba who allegedly acted as police informant and revealed the hideout of the gang following a disagreement on the sharing of ransom has, also, been kept away from the court. Lawyers and relations of the detained suspects continue to bemoan the shielding of the principal suspects from trial, expressing fears that the police and the government may have decided to keep their relations in detention for too long for reasons best known to them.

According to the defense counsels, the seeming shielding of the three suspects from trial even when Nnubia and the other suspects have remained in prison, raises suspicions as to the actual motive of the police and the state government in the matter.

Zeph Anyogu, Counsel to Nnubia, had to complain bitterly before Justice Amanoh over the delay in trying his client, whose bail application had been rejected by all the courts that have so far handled the case. Anyogu had pleaded with the courts to grant Nnubia bail, assuring that he would make sure that the suspect was in court anytime he was needed, but the lawyer’s pleas fell on deaf ears as neither of the courts is willing to grant even a reprieve to Nnubia.

Apart from continued absence of the three suspects from court, what has become more worrisome to the incarcerated suspects and their lawyers is the incessant transfer of the case from one court to another.

From December when the case commenced, six different courts have handled the trial at different times but no meaningful progress has been made. Apart from Justice Amanoh who formally took Nnubia’s bail application that was dismissed, other judges in the case did not go beyond arraignment.

The last trial judge, Justice Ben Agbata, withdrew from the case after he had adjourned argument on the bail application. Agbata who had declared his readiness to handle the case to its logical conclusion, however, withdrew following his recent appointment into an Election Petition Tribunal.

KlinReports learnt that the case file was returned to the Chief Judge for reassignment following Agbata’s exit, but another judge is yet to be appointed to handle the matter. Besides, the appointment of a new judge would mean starting the trial all over.

Again, the movement of Mohammed, one of the accused, from the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu where he was being treated for gunshot wounds, sustained during the raid on their hideout by men of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), to Enugu Government House Clinic is suspect. Mohammed was taken to the hospital in December last year and remained there until mid last month when he was moved to the clinic. Although official quarters claimed that the porous security around Mohammed informed his transfer to the Government House Clinic, he is yet to be brought to court despite court orders to the state police command to that effect. Mohammed’s continued absence in court has, ostensibly, been stalling trial of the suspects.

As it were, the question on the lips of many who are following the case, especially some friends and associates of Nnubia from Anambra state, is, Why the trial has continued to suffer several setbacks and frustrations even with the rule of law posturing of the Nigerian government?

There are allegations that authorities of Enugu state may have decided to keep the oil magnate behind bars for purposes other than the kidnap of Edemobi. In this wise, Chime government is accused of sub-ethnic bias in Nnubia’s continued remand. That is, Nnubia is still being held because he is not an indigene of Enugu state, as the oil mogul hails from the neighboring Anambra state. Or, would Nnubia have been held in prison custody


Igwe Jerry Okoli of Ihembosi community of Anambra state, affirms this thus: “I think Nnubia is being treated this way because he is from Anambra State, otherwise how can anybody explain the government’s refusal to bring the actual culprits before the law court”.

Nnubia, President-General and a first-class chief in the Igwe’s cabinet, has been receiving solidarity from the community, as well as members of Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN), South East Zone, who have always appeared in court to witness proceedings. But most times, Nnubia’s supporters leave the court disappointed, especially, when his bail application is turned down.

On the other hand, petroleum dealers in Enugu state who are worried over the continued detention of their member, Emma Okoli, who runs the popular Conoil Filling station along Ogui Road, have threatened to shut down their stations in protest. The dealers repeatedly pleaded with the authorities to ensure that the suspects were tried without further delay, since they could vouch for their innocence in the matter, but their entreaties have yielded no fruitful result so far.

The case of kidnap is, obviously, a grievous one, but Chief Nnubia and the other kidnap suspects, according to Nigeria legal system, are considered innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, it is a travesty of justice if they are being denied of bail unduly. It is egregious that, since last year Nnubia and his co-accused were hauled into detention, trial is yet to commence in their case. That alone constitutes a violation of their fundamental human rights as entrenched in Chapter 4 of Nigeria constitution.

Enough of this weird politics with Nnubia’s case!