Court Grants Protection for Witnesses in Trial of Seven Boko Haram Suspects

Justice John Tsoho of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday granted an application seeking the protection of witnesses who will testify in the case against seven suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.

The judge who held that the submissions of the defendants’ counsel did not affect the substance of prosecution’s application, however, struck out paragraph 4A of the affidavit.

Earlier, the prosecution team led by Shaibu Labaran, had prayed the court that identity of prosecution witnesses should not be disclosed and barred the public from covering the trial on the grounds that the suspects are on trial for allegedly belonging to a proscribed group.

Labaran also sought leave of the court for prosecution witnesses to be protected, forbid the proceedings to be reported and make the report inaccessible to the public.

He also sought in the application for witnesses to be addressed with pseudo names.

However, counsel to the third and sixth defendants, Elijah Oloruntoba and K. Abdulkarim respectively said part of the grounds on which the prosecution sought the application were offensive to the provisions of the Evidence Act.

They argued that some of the paragraphs were incompetent and thus should be struck out.

According to Oloruntoba, an operative of the DSS who sworn to the affidavit, said he got information from Labaran, an external fact.

He said this was not acceptable as the person who sworn to the affidavit did not carry out the investigation.

“It is our humble submission that some of the grounds of the application are incompetent, especially ground one, which is against the Evidence Act and should be struck out,” he said.

Similarly, Abdulkarim, who stated that he was not opposed to trying the suspects in secret said he was however against some of the grounds on which the application was made. “Ordinarily, we are not opposed to secret trial, but we pray the court to expunge paragraph 4A of 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,” he submitted.

He added: “An accused is presumed to be innocent until the court says so. But ground one of the application sworn to by the prosecution assumed my client to be guilty even before he is tried.”

The suspects, who were yesterday arraigned before Justice John Tsoho 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 Haliru.

They are been tried for conspiracy, hostage taking, supporting a terrorist group, membership of a terrorist group, illegal possession of firearms and concealing information on terrorism.