Ameh Ejekwonyilo
The trial of United Nations office bombing suspects could not continue yesterday at the Federal High Court in Abuja due to the absence of the prosecution counsel.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, counsel to the accused persons, Mr. Ken Durozo, told the court that the prosecution counsel did not inform him of her absence from court.
“The prosecution is not ready to go on with this matter,” he said.
Consequently, Justice Gladys Olotu adjourned the case till March 12, 2014, for further hearing.
Blueprint recalls that the federal government had applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja for permission to reopen its case in the trial of four suspected Boko Haram members being held over their alleged complicity in the 2011 bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja.
The government also planned to amend the four-count charge on which they were being tried.
The four, Salisu Mohammed, Inusa Mukailu, Dan’azumi Haruna and Abdulsalami Adamu, were all arrested in Kano shortly after the bombing incident on August 20, 2011.
They were later arraigned on a four-count charge bordering on terrorism.
On November 22, last year, the trial judge, Justice Gladys Olotu, closed the prosecution’s case on the ground that it failed to handle the case diligently.
She said the court must hear any motion, once it is filed, “whether in makes sense or not.”
Justice Olotu ordered the prosecution to include all the necessary documents in the new motions before the next date and adjourned to February 17, for hearing.
