A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial-within-trial involving suspects accused of plotting to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s government has told a federal high court in Abuja that the defendants made their confessional statements voluntarily.
The witness, an officer with the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police, testified before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on Tuesday.
The court had ordered the trial-within-trial after defence lawyers challenged the federal government’s attempt to tender video recordings of the defendants’ statements, claiming they were obtained under duress.
Rotimi Oyedepo, counsel to the federal government, informed the court that the prosecution had three witnesses prepared for the proceedings.
While giving evidence, the military officer stated that the defendants remained calm and were fully aware of their constitutional rights before making their statements.
He added that the investigation followed the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, as well as standard investigative procedures.
The prosecution presented statements allegedly obtained from the six defendants, alongside an external hard drive and a flash drive said to contain video recordings of their extra-judicial statements.
The court admitted the statements and storage devices as exhibits after defence lawyers raised no objections during the trial-within-trial.
According to the witness, none of the defendants was denied access to legal representation and all were informed of their rights, including the right to remain silent.
Speaking on Mohammed Gana, a retired major-general and the first defendant, the witness described him as “calm throughout the interrogation process.”
He said Gana was informed that any statement he made could be used in court, adding that the video recordings showed no evidence of coercion, intimidation or inducement.
Addressing differences between oral interviews and written statements, the witness said written accounts could not be exact reproductions because “human beings are not computers.”
He gave similar testimony regarding Erasmus Victor, a retired naval captain and second defendant, insisting that his statement was made voluntarily.
The witness also denied allegations that the defendants were tortured or forced to make statements.
On the sixth defendant, an Islamic cleric, the witness explained that an interpreter was provided because the suspect was not fluent in English.
He said the statements were translated between Hausa and English before being read back to the defendant for confirmation.
During cross-examination, the witness admitted he was not a member of the special investigative panel but participated occasionally in the investigation.
He also acknowledged that the video recordings shown in court related only to statements made before the military police and not those obtained by the panel.
The witness further confirmed that none of the statements tendered in court carried endorsements by lawyers and that no legal practitioners, civil society representatives or justices of the peace were present during the recordings.
However, he maintained that all defendants were informed of their rights to legal representation but chose not to request lawyers during interrogation.
Justice Abdulmalik adjourned the case until May 13 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.
The federal government, through the office of the attorney-general of the federation, is prosecuting six suspects over an alleged plot to overthrow the Tinubu administration.