A motion filed by the federal government to modify the
partial secret trial of the alleged mastermind of Nyanya bombing, Aminu Ogwuche
and others to completely shield prosecution witnesses yesterday stalled trial
of the suspects.
Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, Ahmed Abubakar, Mohammed Ishaq, Ya’u
Saidu (alias Kofar Rama); Anas Isa, Adamu Yusuf and Nasir Abubakar are facing
terrorism charges before Jutice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court
sitting in Abuja.
The full trial in the case was supposed to start yesterday
but when the case was called, a representative of the prosecution counsel, M.
Ogunsina, told the court he had a motion dated and filed on April 9, seeking to
modify the order of the court made on March 18, 2015.
In the motion, the federal government wants the court to
direct the use of screens to shield the prosecution witnesses to protect them
from public view but to allow only the lead counsel to the accused person
access to view the facial identities of the prosecution witnesses.
He also told the court to permit the prosecution witnesses
protected access to the court room through a non-public route.
In a five paragraph affidavit in support of the motion, the
deponent stated that failure to grant it will affect the witnesses willingness
to sacrifice and give evidence for fear of their lives.
However, the defence counsel Ahmed Raji (SAN) and five other
counsels said they were served with the motion in court yesterday and it was
not ripe for hearing.
No comments:
Post a Comment