Witnesses to testify against Kanu behind shielded screen

The Federal Government witnesses in the trail of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Director of Radio Biafra, Mr.

In the ruling by Justice James Tsoho of a Federal High Court in Abuja today, March 7, proposed prosecution witnesses lined up to testify against Kanu will have their faces shielded.

Last week, the court had thrown out application by the federal Government, requesting to mask its witnesseswhile testifying against the Biafra leader, citing security reasons.

According to Vanguard, Justice Tsoho dismissed the objection by Kanu’s lawyer, 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 prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Diri. had argued that the screen will only shield the witnesses from the members of the public present in court, the argument which was affirmed by the judge.

Justice Tsoho said the screen will not prevent the judge, the accused persons and lawyers to the parties to see the witnesses while testifying.

Also dismissed was Muoma's request that the court should discharge and acquit its witnesses because the prosecution did not produce its witnesses to enable the trial to commence today.

The judge ruled that the provision of section 351(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act‎ 2015 relied on by the defence to ask for the quashing of the charges, did not apply to the circumstances of the case.

He said the court can only dismiss the charges against an accused person who is present in court when the complainant in the case is not represented in court.

Commencement of the trial was however scheduled for Wednesday, March 9.

A witness screen is a device positioned to shield a witness from seeing the accused in the courtroom.