Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial: Court Okays Shielding Of Witnesses
Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Director of Radio Biafra[/caption]
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, okayed the request by the federal government to enable its witnesses testify against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Director of Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu behind a witness screen.
A witness screen is a device positioned to shield a witness from seeing the accused in the courtroom.
In his ruling, Justice James Tsoho dismissed the objection by counsel to Kanu, Mr. Chuks Muoma (SAN), ruling that the request by the Federal Government for its witnesses to testify behind a witness screen did not amount to revisiting the court’s earlier ruling prohibiting the prosecution witnesses from wearing masks.
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The argument of the prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Diri, that the screen would only shield the witnesses from the members of the public present in court was upheld.
Justice Tsoho dismissed the request by Muoma that the court should discharge and acquit its witnesses because the prosecution failed to produce its witnesses to enable the trial to commence on Monday. The court fixed Wednesday for trial to commence.
Kanu was apprehended in Lagos, in October, on charges of criminal conspiracy, intimidation and belonging to an unlawful society.
