By Ishaya Ibrahim
A Premium Times report has revealed how a court registrar in Kano, Balarabe Adamu, made himself incommunicado just to ensure that activist, Deji Adeyanju, is unable to perfect his bail conditions.
Adeyanju was granted bail on Monday, February 18 by Judge Rabiu Sadiq of the state High Court, after spending 67 days behind bars.
Having met the bail conditions on February 21, the court registrar, whose duty it was to receive documents of those who stood surety for the activist, could not be located.
“We now have incontrovertible grounds to suggest that the Buhari administration is fearful of Deji Adeyanju and interfering in the judicial process to prevent him from being released before the elections,” according to what Ariyo-Dare Atoye, an associate of the activist told PREMIUM TIMES.
The bail conditions given Adeyanju includes; provide two sureties who have land assets in Kano State, as well as submit his international passport.
Haruna Magacci, Adeyanju’s lawyer explained that; “Apparently, they thought that we would not be able to meet the conditions within a few days because it usually takes at least 10 days to verify such properties.
“We were, however, able to fast track it and got it done within 72 hours between Monday and Thursday.”
“But when we arrived at the court to present the documents, the registrar had closed even though the judge was still in the chambers,” Mr Magacci said.
Atoye, an associate of the activist said he later got information from people around that the Registrar ‘fled’ to avoid receiving the documents and passing it over to the judge.
Atoye said they took the documents to the judge directly but he declined to sign a warrant for Adeyanju’s release from prison unless the registrar was present.
PREMIUM TIMES said it called the Registrar onFriday afternoon, but after listening to the enquiries and learning that it had to do withAdeyanju, he abruptly disconnected the line.
The online newspaper said subsequent calls and text messages to the man were ignored.
