ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Federal High Court (FHC) sitting in Abuja, has reserved February 5, 2016, for ruling on application filed by Federal Government for special protection of prosecution witnesses to testify against suspects of Kuje/Nyanya bombings.
At the resumed trial on Thursday, the presiding judge, Justice Abdul Kafarati reserved the date after the counsel to two of the defendants, Nureni Sulyman, opposed the applications,.
The prosecution counsel, Magaji Labaran, had earlier approached the court with the application, arguing that the witnesses needed to be protected.
Magaji had clarified, “we are not calling for a secret trial but for the witnesses to be allowed with facial masks to testify”.
Meanwhile, the counsel to the other defendants, Ahmed Mohammed, Oluwasegun Owa and Aliyu Momoh, had left the outcome of the application to the discretion of the Court.
The defendants are: Abdulazeez Muhazab, Ishaka Salihu, Mohammed Jimoh, Abdulwaheed Nasiru and Abdullahi Nasiru.
However, Sulyman, counsel to the fourth defendant (Abdulwaheed Nasiru) filed an application urging the Court to reverse the plea of guilty entered for his client during his arraignment on October 22, 2015.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The defence counsel, who made oral application to that regard, was advised by the Judge to come formally through a written application.
“This is a serious prayer that requires formal application, so you may want to come by way of a written application. This will give the prosecution to also file its objection,’’ he said.
Earlier, the prosecution had opposed the move by Sulyman to obliterate the plea already made by his client through an oral application.
“My Lord, this is a serious move to circumvent justice. This is a terrorism case and therefore the counsel must be stopped from tossing the Court up and down.
“We are prepared to vehemently object such application, so he should be made to comply with the rules of Court by filing a written application to the respect,’’ Labaran countered.
The Federal Government had on October 22, 2015, arraigned the five persons suspected to have carried out the October 2, 2015, bombings in Nyanya and Kuje, satellite towns of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The accused are facing a five-count charge of terrorism, unlawful possession of firearms and conspiracy to commit the alleged heinous crime against humanity.
Count one of the charge held that Muhazab, Salihu, Jimoh, Nasiru, Abdullahi Nasiru and others at large at Kuje and Jikoyi Park, Nyanya within the jurisdiction of the court conspired to carry out bomb attacks.
It further held that the accused persons allegedly carried out the bomb attacks with the use of Improvised Explosives Devices (IED).
The charge stated that the act was an offence punishable under Section 17 of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013.
Count two of the charge sheet alleged that the five accused and others at large on Oct 2 conspired to bomb Jikoyi Park in Nyanya which resulted in the death of scores of people among others.
