Court Remands 30 IPOB Members In Rivers
A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Thursday has remanded thirty members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in prison.
Operatives of the Rivers state Police Command had arrested the IPOB members for allegedly involving in violent acts on Tuesday.
Nine out of the 30 persons arraigned in court were accused of killing a police sergeant identified as Steven Daniel on Wednesday during the crisis at Oyigbo.
The court however said it lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The Chief Magistrate, Amadi Amadi-Nna, further directed the court registrar to remit the case file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice and adjourned the matter indefinitely.
Prosecution counsel, Enoch George said, “Naturally, the defendants have their lawyers and they also raised legal issues that the court does not have jurisdiction over.
“Defendants also said that the court should strike out the charges and discharge them. But we, the prosecutors, decided that the charge on which they were brought to court was very heavy and weighty.
“Some of the accused persons were charged under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Justice Law in Rivers state, which is murder, while some were charged under Section 69, 70, which is unlawful assembly, procession and others and some of them were charged with treasonable felony.”
