The police on Thursday arraigned before a Port Harcourt Magistrate’s Court eight persons suspected to be members and supporters of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and the Indigenous People of Biafra, who protested in the Rivers State capital on Tuesday.
Those arraigned, including a female, are Benedict Egine (55), Uchenna Emenike (25), Chukwunonso Nwaolisa (36), Obilor Onyemachukwu (29), Ogbonna Godwin (31), Wilson Ezeka (42) and Destiny Amuchechukwu, a female (19).
The police had arraigned the 55-year-old Egine separately on the charges of conspiracy and breach of the peace while the seven others were brought to court and charged collectively.
One of the charges against the accused persons was that they conspired to ‘levy war against the Federal Government, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 37 (2) of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004’.
The other charge against the suspects was the ‘unlawful demonstration, chanting of war songs and the agitation for a Biafra nation, a development which caused panic in the neighbourhood’.
The offences are punishable under Section 37(2) of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004.
But the Chief Magistrate, B. Jamabo, refused to hear the matter, as he said that the court had no jurisdiction to handle the case.
Jamabo, however, referred the matter to the Department of Public Prosecution for legal advice, even as he directed that the suspects be remanded in prison custody pending the outcome of the legal advice from the DPP.
He subsequently adjourned the case till December 3, 2015.
It will be recalled that 20 persons had also been arraigned after the first protest by pro-Biafra supporters, who were arrested by security agents in Port Harcourt a few weeks ago.
The latest protest by the pro-Biafra groups, which took place on Tuesday, turned violent as the protesters pulled down Nigerian flags and destroyed some vehicles plying the Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway.
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