Nyanya bomb blast suspect, Aminu Sodiq Ogwuche
Trial of Aminu Sodiq Ogwuche and six others charged with complicity in
the April 14, 2014's bomb blasts at Nyanya Bus Stop, near Abuja, has
been adjourned to June 2nd and 3rd to enable the trial court determine
whether the suspects made statements voluntarily or did under torture.
The trial judge adjourned the matter to conduct trial-within-trial
after the accused’s lawyers objected to the admissibility of alleged
confessional statements of the accused persons
Justice Mohammed adjourned till June 2nd and 3rd, 2015 to commence the
trial-with-in trial in the matter to ascertain the voluntariness of the
confessional statements of the accused persons.
The accused persons, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, Ahmed Abubakar, Mohammed
Ishaq, Ya’u Saidu (alias Kofar Rama); Anas Isa, Adamu Yusuf and Nasir
Abubakar, are facing terrorism-related charges.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Wedenesday, the prosecution
counsel, Mohammed Diri, sought to tender the statements of the accused
persons through the first prosecution witness, but the accused persons'
counsel led by Ahmed Raji, SAN, objected.
Raji, in his submission, told the court that the first accused person,
Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, was beaten and severely tortured before his
statement was obtained.
In the circumstance, he argued that the statement was not voluntarily
given and hence, should not be admitted as evidence by the court.
In the same vein, counsel to the second accused person, Abdul Mohammed,
urged the court not to admit the statement of his client as it was
obtained under severe torture.
Mohammed then prayed the court to conduct trial-with-in trial to
ascertain the voluntariness or otherwise of the statements before the
prosecution was allow to tender them.
Counsel to the rest accused persons aligned themselves with the
submissions of Raji and Abdul Mohammed and prayed the court to order
trial with-in-trial in the matter.
Responding, the prosecution counsel, Diri, urged the judge to
discountenance the submissions of the defence counsel, adding that the
statements of all the accused persons were voluntarily obtained,
contrary to their submissions.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government on Tuesday said it
would tender 37 documentary evidence and call five witnesses in the
trial of the Nyanya bomb blasts suspects.
The first prosecution witness, an investigator with the Department of
State Security (DSS) had already told the court that he knew Ogwuche in
2011 when he was deported from the United Kingdom (UK) for belonging to
a terrorism group there.
He also told the court how he obtained the statements of all the
accused persons at various time, adding also that the accused persons
gave their statements voluntarily.
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