BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
It is more than a year since the Ambazonia leaders were arrested at the Nera Hotel in Nigeria and ‘extradited’ to Yaounde. The January 5, 2018 arrest of the ‘Nera 10’ has since been in the news in Nigeria and in Cameroon.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria is due to resume hearing of the case between Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, Interim President of Ambazonia and nine others and the Nigerian government today January 28.
Initially scheduled to open on January 21, it was adjourned to January 28 due to the absence of the sitting judge of the court Ijeoma Ojukwu, we learnt.
With family members, friends and colleagues of the detainees keen on following the proceedings to its logical end, teacher trade unions to which some of the accused persons belong are said to flood the court house today.
Lawyers of the detained Ambazonia leaders seized the court to order their return to Nigeria where they were arrested a year ago and extradited to Cameroon. The lawyers say their clients are not Cameroonians and should be returned to Nigeria, their place of residence where their matter can be heard in a civil court.
Lead counsels Barristers Fru John Nsoh and Ndong Christopher are expected in Nigeria where to join their Nigerian counterparts Femi Falana and Abdul Oroh to plead their case.
While in Nigeria, they will equally be seeking to prepare documentation to prove the detained leaders had refugee status at the time they were arrested in Nigeria on January 5, 2018.
The detained leaders had rejected the Cameroonian nationality at the Yaoundé military court during the last hearing forcing the court to adjourn the case to February 7 when they are expected to show prove of their status.
As the trial opens today, it is left to be seen if the Nigerian court can order the return to Nigeria of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Tassang Wilfred, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Dr Henry Kimeng, Dr Cornelius Kwanga, Dr Fidelis Che, Prof Awasum Augustine, Dr Egbe Ogork, Barristers Eyambe Elias and Shufai Blaise who are currently detained at the Yaoundé Principal Prison in the Kondengui neighborhood.