No Bail For 21 Suspected IPOB Members Facing Terrorism Charges In Rivers

A Magistrate Court sitting in Port Harcourt has remanded 21 suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) paraded on Monday at the headquarters of the Rivers State Police Command to the Correctional Centre in Port Harcourt.

They were arraigned on Tuesday by the Police on three different charges of terrorism, cultism, and illegal and unlawful gathering.

Chief Magistrate A.O. Amadi-Nna declined to grant them bail as applied by their lawyers because of the nature of the charges that were preferred against them.

The Chief Magistrate, after listening keenly to the defense lawyers’ appeal that the court should remand their clients to the SCID Unit of the Rivers State Police Command, ordered the prosecution team to drop the case file with the registrar of the court to enable fast transmission of the file to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) unit of the Rivers State Ministry of Justice.

Although the Chief Magistrate, Amadi-Nna accepted that his court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter, he also advised the lawyers of the 21 defendants to approach the High Court and seek bail for their clients.

He adjourned the case to the 29th of December pending the outcome of the legal advice from the DPP.