Abuja: The Federal High Court on Monday granted an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) for accelerated hearing in the ongoing prosecution of five men accused of the Aug. 26, 2011, bombing of the United Nations’ Building in Abuja. Justice Emeka Nwite granted the order while ruling on an application moved by prosecuting lawyer, Alex Izinyon, SAN, who noted that the case had dragged for nearly 15 years.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Al-Barnawi, also known by various aliases such as Kafuri, Naziru, Alhaji Yahaya, Malam Dauda, and Alhaji Tanimu, is being prosecuted by the DSS along with Mohammed Bashir Saleh, Umar Mohammed Bello (aka Datti), Mohammed Salisu, and Yakubu Nuhu (aka Bello Maishayi). Izinyon had stated that the case had been in court for about nine years and prayed the court for expeditious hearing in line with the court’s practice direction on the prosecution of terrorism and related cases. He emphasized the importance of promptly determining the case by allowing daily proceedings, where feasible.
Lawyers to the defendants did not object to Izinyon’s application, leading Justice Nwite to grant it. During proceedings, a prosecution witness, a senior operative of DSS, testified that the Service was always professional in its investigations. This was stated during a trial-within-trial to ascertain whether the defendants offered their statements voluntarily.
The witness, identified as PW3, and a computer forensic expert in the DSS’ Technical Department, was cross-examined by Bala Dakum, the lawyer for the second defendant. He mentioned that he couldn’t recall specifics of all that are contained in a video recording of one of the interview sessions with the second defendant, admitted in evidence as ‘Exhibit C.’ He noted that he recorded the interview sessions with the five defendants but could not remember the exact month and year that ‘Exhibit C’ was recorded. However, he stressed that the evidential forensic recorders used by the DSS comply with the Evidence Act and global standards.
The witness refuted Dakum’s claim that there were several skips in the recording of the statements of the second defendant, Exhibit C, in particular. On the claim that cautionary words were not administered on the second defendant before making his statements, the witness clarified that his role was limited to recording everything that transpired between the defendant and the interviewers. He added that from the video evidence, the second defendant was administered cautionary words, given all options to volunteer or decline, and had access to legal counsel, but voluntarily continued with the interview.
Regarding the suggestion that not all that transpired in the interview room was captured in the video, the witness asserted that every official interaction between the interviewers and defendants was duly recorded. On why only the face of the second defendant was shown in the video, he explained it was standard practice not to capture the faces of the interviewers for their personal safety.
The witness added that the standard operating procedure of the DSS provides for protection in the interest of the personal security of the interviewers. He explained that while interviews often require exchanges, such as giving papers or pens, and body parts of interviewers may inadvertently become visible, the recording device is designed to be tamper-proof.
When questioned about whether a video with an inadvertently captured interviewer’s face is edited or discarded, the witness stated that every session of official interactions between the defendants and interviewers is submitted to the court, leaving concerns about security exposure for the court’s determination.
Earlier, while being cross-examined by the lawyer for the first defendant, F. K. Kamaga, the witness detailed how he audio-visually recorded the interview, statements taken, and translation sessions with the five defendants. He refuted Kamaga’s claim that the recording device could be edited or paused during a session, asserting that the forensic recorder is designed to be tamper-proof and records on two digitally exact DVDs in real-time without pausing or stopping.