Justice James Tsoho of a Federal High Court in Abuja is on Monday allowed the proposed prosecution witnesses lined up by the Federal Government to testify behind a witness screen against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Director of Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.
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“My Lord, we will need time to respond to the motion for stay of this trial”.
The case has been adjourned to April 4 for hearing.
He also said his team member, Ejiofor, would be de-robed to also testify on the threat.
“My lord I will like you to take note of this threat to my life, because I don’t know what will happen tomorrow”, Mr. Ejiofor said.
“They can’t open their case”.
He urged the court to put it on record that the DSS officials in the court had threatened him.
Meanwhile, following the inability of the Federal Government to produce any of the witnesses in court yesterday as it was earlier directed, Chief Muoma, SAN, applied for his clients to be discharged and acquitted of the charge against them.
“Our witnesses are ready”.
He said the section states that when the case is called, the defendant appears voluntarily after court sermons or is brought to court by a court warrant.
But Mr. Muoma objected, stressing that an application for such a variation should have been made in a written document within 14 days after the order was made requesting the appearance of witnesses in court, not as a verbal request before the court. Or that they are not around. Witnesses to testify behind a screen Meantime, owing to the fresh application by the Federal Government, trial Justice Tsoho, yesterday, permitted the witnesses to testify behind a screen.
“The practice is that once this kind of application is filed, the court should naturally adjourn the matter”.
But the judge declined the request to dismiss the charges against Kanu.
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The prosecuting counsel, Mohammed Diri, informed the court that he received an information, contained in a piece of paper, which he showed to the judge, from the DSS personnel that some agitators had planned at abducting the accused persons, having had an altercation with DSS officials at the court premises.
