Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday issued warrants for the release of the convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, from the custody of the Department of State Services.
Their lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), had earlier said during the proceedings that his clients had met the bail conditions imposed on them by the court.
Falana said this as Sowore alleged that the Federal Government wanted to use masked prosecution witnesses against him.
Punch correspondent saw copies of the warrants for the release of the defendants signed by Justice Ojukwu after the proceedings.
Falana told our correspondent that the release warrants were served on the DSS in Abuja after the judge signed them.
However, Falana said the DSS had yet to comply.
They are tried on charges of treasonable felony.
The proceedings were stalled by the prosecution’s failure to serve on the defendants the statements of the witnesses, video exhibits and all other documents intended to be relied on by the FG to prove its case.
Justice Ojukwu, who ordered the prosecution team to serve the defendants with the items before the next hearing date was forced to adjourn trial till December 5 and 6.
She reluctantly adjourned the case as she had earlier overruled a request by Falana and Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) to do so.
They asked for an adjournment on the grounds that the DSS had denied them access to the defendants in custody to enable them to prepare them ahead of the defence.
Falana said the defendants produced in court by the DSS were not also allowed to interact with the defence team for up to five minutes each time they were brought to court in the previous proceedings.
He added that the prosecution team was not ready for trial as they had embarked on a plan to have prosecution witnesses masked and testify behind a screen without the knowledge of the judge.
He said the plan had been concluded between the prosecution team and the Deputy Chief Registrar of the court.
He insisted that lawyer for the DSS Hassan Liman told him about the arrangement in confidence shortly before Wednesday’s proceedings began.
Falana said without an application brought before the court to that effect and granted by the judge, the procedure could not be allowed.
But Liman said he merely made an “advance notice” notice to the DCR for the provision of the screen.
He said contrary to Falana’s claim, he had planned to file before the court a formal application for only one of the prosecution witnesses to testify behind the shield.
He said it was an “administrative arrangement” that was subject to the judge’s approval.
The senior lawyer, also debunked Falana’s claims that the DSS denied the defendants lawyers access to their clients in custody.
They are Ahmad Zakari (Special Adviser on Infrastructure), Obafela Bank-Olemoh (Senior Special Assistant on Education Interventions), Louis Odion (Senior Technical Assistant on Print Media) and Ajuri Ngelale (Senior Special Assistant for Public Affairs).
When contacted for comments on the sacking of the aides, the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr Garba Shehu, said, “The SGF has responsibility for the issuance of letters of appointment, and where the need arises, sack letters as well.”
But the Director of Information, Office of the SGF, Willie Bassey, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that he was not aware of the sacking.
The Senior Special Assistant to the VP on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, did not respond to enquiries by the newspaper. Punch