Justice John Tsoho of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday granted an application by the Federal Government, seeking protection of witnesses in the on-going trial of the seven suspected Boko Haram leaders, who were allegedly involved in the kidnap and murder of 11 foreign nationals between 2011 and 2013 in the Northern part of the country.
The ruling of the court followed an application by the Federal Government, through its counsel, Shuaibu Labaran that the identity of prosecution witnesses should not be disclosed.
Labaran also prayed that the prosecution witnesses should be protected and that the witnesses be addressed with pseudo names in the course of the trial.
In his objection, counsel to the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th defendants, Samuel Attah told the county that part of the grounds for the prosecution’s application are offensive to the provision of the Evidence Act., adding that some of the paragraphs were incompetent and thus should be struck out.
According to him, an operative of the Department of State Services (DSS) who deposed to the affidavit in support of the prosecution’s motion said he got information from Shaibu Labaran, an external fact.
He said this was not acceptable as the person who swore to the affidavit did not carry out the investigation.
Counsel to the 3rd defendant, Elijsha Oloruntoba, in his submission said “It is our humble submission that some of the grounds of the application are incompetent, especially ground one, which is against the Evidence Act, which he said should be struck out.”
In his own submission, K. Abdulkarim, representing the 6th defendant was not opposed to trying the defendants in secret but was against some of the grounds and begged the court to expunge the paragraph in the affidavit that offends provisions of the Evidence Act.
“Section 150 of the Evidence Act of 2011 and Section 36 of the Constitution as amended said affidavit shall not contain extraneous facts.”
“An accused is presumed innocent until the court otherwise. But ground one of the application assumed my client to be guilty even before he is tried,” he said.
However, Labaran told the court that since the defendants’ counsel did not object to all the paragraphs of the application, there were still grounds for the application to succeed and urged the court to grant the applicant.
Justice Tsoho consequently struck out paragraph 4A and said that the ground the defendants complained about does not affect the case.
On the second application, where-in the prosecution asked the court to vary its easier order the defendants be remanded in Kuje prison, Labaran prayed the court to vary the order to enable the defendants remain in the custody of the DSS because of security challenge at the Kuje Prison.
Counsel to the defendants objected to the application, adding that the prosecution refused to obey the order of the court made on March 14 and detained the defendants in the custody of DSS as against the order of the court.
They held that the prosecution are in contempt of the court and as such cannot approach the court for variation of the order they refused to obey.
Justice Tsoho reserved ruling till April 25, 2017.
The Federal Government had slammed an 11-count charge against the seven suspected leaders of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, to which they all pleaded not guilty when read out to them in the court.
The suspects are, Mohammed Usman (aka Khalid Albarnawi), described as the leader of a Boko Haram splinter group, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan (a.k.a ANSARU); Mohammed Bashir Saleh, Umar Bello (aka Abu Azzan); Mohammed Salisu (Datti); Yakubu Nuhu (aka Bello Maishayi), Usman Abubakar (Mugiratu) and a lady, Halima Aliyu.
The defendants, said to be leaders of Boko Haram before establishing their own faction, are charged with conspiracy, hostage taking, supporting a terrorist group, membership of a terrorist group, illegal possession of firearms and concealing information on terrorism.