There was a mild drama at Court 7, Federal High Court, Abuja, as the application by the Department of State Services (DSS) counsel, Hassan Liman, to take witnesses in the ongoing trial of Omoyele Sowore, Convener, #RevolutionNow Protest, in camera failed.
\nSowore, alongside Olawale Bakare, is charged by the DSS with treasonable felony and money laundering, among others.
\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu had, on October 21, adjourned commencement of trial till November 6 and November 7, after varying the bail conditions granted Sowore, and his co-defendant, Bakare.
\nJustice Ojukwu had granted the order in a ruling on the application for bail variation by the duo.
\nHowever, on Wednesday before the commencement of the trial, screen shield was already set up in the court for witnesses to be taken.
\nBut it was dismantled shortly before Justice Ojukwu took her seat.
\nAs soon as court proceeding started, the DSS counsel, Liman (SAN), told the court that the agency was ready to commence the trial based on the order of the court in the last sitting.
\nHowever, the counsel to the 1st defendant, Femi Falana (SAN), prayed the court for an adjournment of the matter to enable them perfect the defendants\u2019 bail conditions.
\nFalana, who told the court that the security outfit had made it difficult for them to have access to the defendants to prepare for the trial, said even in court, they were only given less than five minutes to converse with them.
\nQuoting the law, he said defendants are expected to be given adequate time and facilities for their defence.
\nFalana hinted that all the bail conditions have been met but they needed time to perfect them.
\nHe also accused the DSS of planning a secret trail for his client.
\nHowever, the counsel to the DSS, Liman, objected to the application for adjournment, saying the defendants\u2019 counsel had had ample time to perfect the bail conditions and prepare for the trial.
\nLiman, who disagreed that the DSS had not given them opportunity to meet the defendants, said they were given unrestricted access to them.
\nUnhappy with Liman\u2019s response, Falana told Justice Ojukwu that the prosecution counsel had told him before the commencement of the trial that their witnesses would be taken in camera.
\nHe said Liman\u2019s statement was evident with the setting up of screen shield by the witness box close to the judge\u2019s door.
\nAccording to Falana, \u201cI was told that the witnesses will come in through My Lord\u2019s door to the screen shield where they will testify.
\n\u201cThey have made arrangement with the deputy chief registrar to take the witnesses on camera without our knowledge.
\n\u201cThis is an ambush. But all of a sudden, the court clerk dismantled the shield.\u201d
\nThe lawyer said when Liman discovered that the plan did not work, he approached him for cooperation.
\nHe said the act was meant to embarrass the court and the defendants.
\nWhen Justice Ojukwu asked Liman on what transpired, the DSS told the court that an application was made to take the witnesses in camera.
\nHe said though it was not a judicial arrangement, an administrative arrangement was made in that regard through the Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR) of the court, Mr Femi Ekperobe.
\nJustice Ojukwu, therefore, summoned the DCR to explain why such arrangement was made without the court\u2019s knowledge.
\nEkperobe, who confirmed the development, told the court that such arrangement is meant for high profile cases.
\nHe said: \u201cThe prosecution counsel made an application to the effect to which an approval was given in view of high profile nature of the case.\u201d
\nThe judge, who was unaware of the arrangement, asked the prosecution counsel \u201cwho is in charge of the court?\u201d
\nLiman, who responded that the judge was in charge of the court, said they would appropriately apply to the court.
\nThen the DCR was asked to go.
\nHowever, Justice Ojukwu, who asked the prosecution counsel to call the first witness, ruled that the court was of the view to commence trial because when the court granted defendants bail in the last adjourned date, the court ordered accelerated hearing on the case.
\nLiman then read the charges against the defendants.
\nWhile he was about to call the 1st witness, Falana objected to the move.
\nFalana, in response, told the court that the DSS had not served them with the witnesses\u2019 statements and the video recordings to enable the defence counsel prepare for the trial contrary to the ACJA Act.
\nThe human rights lawyer, who described the act as plans by the security agency to ambush them, said the DSS was not ready for the trial.
\nJustice Ojukwu assured them that justice would be done in the case despite the decision to continue with the case.
\n\u201cThis court does not condone frivolity. Neither the prosecution nor the defence counsel can control this court.
\n\u201cThe court has final decision whether anyone has made arrangement or not,\u201d she said.
\nOjukwu said that every trial has a constitutional background.
\nThe judge, therefore, asked if the prosecution counsel had served the defence counsel with the documents and attached the video recordings.
\nShe said the prosecution counsel ought to have served the defendants with all the documents that would assist them in the defence.
\nThe judge, who said it was the right of the defence counsel to request for any document that would assist them, said no one can waste the precious time of the court.
\nOn his part, Liman said there was no legal requirement that required the defence to be served the written statements of witnesses since they would have been served with their names and briefs.
\nThe judge asked if they were not entitled to the documents and Liman gave a \u2018yes\u2019 response.
\nThe DSS counsel, therefore, applied for more time to continue the trial and Falana did not object it.
\nJustice Ojukwu adjourned the matter till December 5 and December 6 for commencement of trial.
\nBy NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was a mild drama at Court 7, Federal High Court, Abuja, as the application by the Department of State Services (DSS) counsel, Hassan Liman, to take witnesses in the ongoing trial of Omoyele Sowore, Convener, #RevolutionNow Protest, in camera failed. Sowore, alongside Olawale Bakare, is charged by the DSS with treasonable felony and money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}