The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, ordered trial-within-trial in the seven-count terrorism and treasonable felony charge the Federal Government initiated against the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Justice James Omotosho okayed the mini trial to ascertain the voluntariness or otherwise of an alleged confessional statement the defendant made while he was interrogated by the Department of State Services, DSS, shortly after he was arrested in 2015.
The legal procedure was activated after Kanu challenged the admissibility of his recorded statements, which he insisted were obtained from him under duress.
He raised the objection shortly after the prosecution sought to tender the written statements and a video recording of his interview by DSS operatives, through the third witness in the matter who was simply identified as “CCC”.
Whereas the video interview took place on October 21, 2015, the written statements were made in October and November, 2015.
The witness, who testified behind a protective screen, told the court that he was assigned to interrogate the IPOB leader, alongside three other operatives.
He told the court that before the interview commenced, he informed Kanu that the session would be recorded.
Meanwhile, immediately the prosecution counsel presented the exhibits to the witness, leader of Kanu’s legal team, Kanu Agabi, SAN, challenged their admissibility, contending that his client was coerced as he made the statements under pressure.
Following a query from the judge, Kanu told the court that his repeated request to have his lawyer around during his interview sessions with the DSS, were refused.
Kanu insisted that the witness in the box was not the operative that interrogated him, saying it was an agent that was called Brown.
The defendant further alleged that he was not only kept in solitary confinement but was manhandled.
“I wrote some things under pressure,” he added.
However, the prosecution denied the allegation that Kanu was either beaten or threatened, maintaining that he made his statements voluntarily.
Owing to the contention, Justice Omotosho ordered a trial within trial in the matter.
Testfying during the trial within trial, the witness said it was not true that Kanu was maltreated during his interrogation, even as he refuted claim that he was coerced to make derogatory statements that included insulting former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as alleging that Senator Rochas Okorocha “Islamized” his people.
The defendant was said to have made the remarks when he granted an interview to an online media outlet and branded Nigeria a “Zoo”
The court equally played video recordings where Kanu claimed that the Biafra agitation got funding from across the globe and boasted that IPOB had representatives in over 80 countries.
The defendant equally admitted that he was the founder and director of Radio Biafra.
The video footages and the contentious statements were tendered as exhibits.
Likewise, the court allowed Kanu to testify for himself during the trial within trial.
In his testimony, Kanu told the court that he was struck by a DSS operative when he was picked up in Lagos in 2015, an attack he said made him to bleed through the nose.
He said the same operative later apologised to him on their way to the airport enroute Abuja.
Justice Omotosho adjourned the matter till Thursday for continuation of hearing and to deliver ruling on the admissibility of the exhibits in contention.
