36 Pro-Biafra Activists Set Free By Court After Four Years

By Gideon Njoku

Four years after they were herded into prison, 36 pro-Biafra Activists have been set free.

They were discharged and acquitted by an Abakiliki, Ebonyi State High Court.

The good news for the families, friends and associates of the detainees was broken by Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Counsel for the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

Ejiofor disclosed this Owerri Friday, and reeled out  the obstacles summounted before the freedom of the detainees was secured.

All natives of Ebonyi State, the  36 detainees were  arrested in 2020 after which they were charged with murder in case No. HAB/29c/2021.

At the trial, according to Ejiofor, the prosecution was not able to prove the charges. He said that he filed a “No Case Submission,” which was sustained by the Court which on September 27, 2022, dismissed the charges and acquitted the accused.

But no sooner were they discharged and acquitted than they were re-arrested and arraigned.

The new charge sheet,  No. HAB/43c/2022, now included allegations of  unlawful possession of firearms, robbery, unlawful association, arson, conduct likely to cause a breach of peace, and carrying out warlike behaviour.

But again there was no  evidence to support the allegations. The defence presented  another “No Case Submission”.

For the second time, the Court discharged the activists  on December 22, 2023.

Still bent on framing and finding them guilty the prosecution filed another charge against them

while the second charge was still pending.

In  Charge No. HAB/59c/2022, the detainees were accused of armed robbery, and hounded back into custody in defiance of earlier court orders.

Luck shone on them  September 27, 2024, when on the completion of the third trial, the Court again upheld the No Case Submission, and thus, discharged and acquitted  all 36 detainees for the third time.

But despite the repeated court orders, prison officials refused to release them. They cited a new charge said to be before the Ikwo High Court.

Ejiofor lamented this new twist, and described it as a desperate attempt to deny the detainees their freedom.

He, therefore, appealed to Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, and urged him to intervene in order to  prevent this “mockery of the judicial process” from continuing.