Nyanya Blast Suspects: Court Reserves Ruling On Witness Protection

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday, January 21, reserved ruling on protection of witnesses against suspects of the Nyanya/ Kuje October bombings.

At the court sitting today, the prosecuting counsel, Magaji Labaran made an application for witness protection.

Labaran said the witnesses that would be brought against the suspects needed to be protected.

He said: “We are not calling for a secret trial but for the witnesses to be allowed with facial masks to testify.”

Justice Abdul Kafarati adjourned ruling on the matter to Friday, February 5 after counsel to two of the defendants, Nureni Sulyman made objections to the application.

He also filed an application urging the court to reverse the plea of guilty entered for his client, Abdulwaheed Nasiru during his arraignment on Thursday, October 22, 2015.

At their initial arraignment, Abdulwaheed had pleaded guilty to one of the charges against him.

He said a friend of his gave him some of the explosive materials and phones, the police recovered from him to keep.

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But having made an application for withdrawal, the judge advised Sulyman to send in a formally written application to that regards.

“This 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,” Kafarati said.

In an objection, the prosecuting counsel, opposed Sulyman’s application 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 said.

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Counsels to three other defendants, Ahmed Mohammed, Oluwasegun Owa and Aliyu Momoh said they would rely on the court’s discretion on the ruling on witness protections.

The accused persons – Abdulazeez Muhazab, Ishaka Salihu, Mohammed Jimoh, Abdulwaheed Nasiru and Abdullahi Nasiru – were arraigned by the Nigeria police over the involvement with the Friday, October 2 Nyanya/ Kuje bombings.

The five accused persons are standing trial on a five-count charge bordering on 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), an offence punishable under Section 17 of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013.

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