A suspected gun-runner, Nuhu Marafa, was on Friday in Kaduna arraigned before a Kaduna Chief Magistrate's Court on a two-count charge of illegal possession of arms and funding a terror group.
Marafa, 54, who was a former National Treasurer of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association, was arrested on January 14, along with his son, Musa, for alleged gun-running and having links with a terror group.
The Nigerian Army had conducted a search on the suspect's house, located at Trikania, opposite IBBI Brewery Company in Kaduna, where items, including pump-action gun and 43 rounds of ammunition were allegedly recovered.
The army authorities paraded the suspect and his son before newsmen on January16, while his second son, Yusuf, now at large, has since been declared wanted by 1 Division of the Nigerian Army in Kaduna, also for alleged possession of arms.
Marafa had, through his Counsel, Mr. Bello Ibrahim, on February 2, approached a Federal High Court in Kaduna, seeking an order to allow the enforcement of his fundamental human rights and the immediate release of the suspects by the Army.
Ibrahim sought a court order enforcing his client's right to human dignity, personal liberty and privacy, which according to him, was violated by the third respondent.
However, at the resumed hearing of the case on February 8, Biola Oyebanjo, counsel to the defendants, who announced that he was representing the respondents, presented two applications before the court.
He sought the approval of the court to join the Director General of the SSS as party to the case and to withdraw the third respondent (GOC 1 Div.) from the list of respondents.
Justice Lucia Ojukwu, the presiding judge, however, refused Oyebanjo's prayers.
Ojukwu adjourned the case to February 16 for ruling on the substantive suit.
In a twist to the case however, the Army and the State Security Service jointly arraigned Marafa before the Chief Magistrate's Court on a two-count charge on Friday.
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The man was said to have been found with a pump action and that makes him a gun runner and member of a terro gang? Give me a break my people, there is more to his arrest than is being made public. Again, why rush him to the Magistrate only after he has sought to enforce his fundamental rights? Someone somewhere does not appear to know what they are doing.
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