Zaria clash: Court orders sureties to produce accused minors

Kaduna State High Court presided over by Justice Hannatu Balogun on Monday ordered three suretees who stood in for 63 accused minors, including seven juvenile boys, and 12 women arrested during December 12, 2015, Zaria Shiites/Army clash to produce them.

However, the three suretees, Musa Usman, Muhktar  M.Sherrif  and Khalid Isah said they did not know that they were standing surety for the accused because according to them, police only asked them to facilitate the release of the accused minors and women from detention.

The accused persons who are children, juveniles and women were charged for culpable homicide punishable with death.

Though, one of the sureties, Khalid Isah was not in court, Musa Usman who spoke in court on their behalf, said they only obeyed the police so that the accused persons could be released, not necessarily filling a bail application for them.

But the lead counsel to the State Government, Mr. Dari Bayero said he would not believe that police could release accused persons to any body without bail application being signed by a surety.

While tendering before the court, the bail application being signed by Musa Usman with his photograph passport attached, Mr. Bayero said, “I know how much I suffered before I got the sureties to court, so I am not surprised at their attempt to deny the bail application”.

While replying to Mr. Bayero, the lead counsel to the accused, Mr. Festus Okoye said, “If the Commissioner of Police asked persons to assist the accused for a bail, it does not amount to being a surety”.

When the bail application was shown to him by the court, Usman confirmed that it was his signature and passport, but denied the signature on the first page of the application.

He said the accused persons he stood in for are between the ages of 9-17 years, accepting to bring them to court if given enough period of time to do so.

However, the presiding Judge asked the sureties how much time they needed to produce the accused persons before the court.

Consequently, Usman demanded for 30 days duration to bring the accused minors to court.

Mr. Bayero did not if he would object to the 30 days as requested by the surety,  said he did not object.

The Judge said the suretees actually need the 30 days to gather the accused persons before bringing them to court because they are in different locations across the country.

The presiding Judge therefore adjourned the case till June 20, 2016 to enable the suretees produce the accused persons.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Journalists, Mr. Okoye, said, “The Commissioner of Police told Musa Usman that he (Commissioner) was given an order by the governor to release women and children unconditionally, based on that they went and chart two buses, when the bused arrived, police brought the detainees from different cells, and as they were bringing them from the cells, they were putting them inside those buses.

“Those whose direction are Kawo, Zaria, Funtua, etc, were put in buses going that way, and those whose direction was Niger, Lagos, and so on, were put in buses going that way.

“And the buses left, they did not leave with the buses, they did not sign any bond, saying the accused persons were released to them on bail because if you see the document containing names of the minors and juveniles, it was prepared by the police, so for the police to turn back now to go and prepare charges culpable homicide punishable with death against children and juveniles, it doesn’t make sense because the deal was between the so called sureties and the Commissioner of Police.”