ABUJA, Nigeria: The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Nigeria’s Department of State Services to investigate the alleged leak of trial evidence to social media during proceedings for an alleged coup plot on Tuesday.
The presiding judge, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, issued the directive after the prosecution stated that trial materials had been unlawfully distributed online. Okay News reports that Rotimi Oyedepo, counsel to the prosecution, informed the court that videos tendered as evidence were posted on social media by an individual identified as Very Dark Man.
Justice Abdulmalik ordered the Department of State Services to investigate the claims and apprehend any perpetrators found violating the court’s existing witness protection orders. The judge directed that the investigation occur concurrently with the ongoing trial, as all six defence lawyers denied leaking the materials.
The court was conducting a trial-within-a-trial to determine the voluntariness of statements made by the six defendants, who are accused of attempting to topple the government of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu. A prosecution witness identified only as “DDD” testified that the defendants were not chained, tortured, or harassed during their interviews.
“It is not true. The feet of the defendants were not chained; they walked into the interview room by themselves,” the witness said. The witness also testified that none of the defendants requested the presence of legal counsel, family members, officials of the Legal Aid Council, or a justice of the peace.
Oyedepo announced the closure of the prosecution’s case in the trial-within-trial after presenting four witnesses. Justice Abdulmalik adjourned the proceedings to June 25 and June 30 for the first three defendants to present their case, with the remaining three scheduled for July 1 and July 2, and set July 20 for a ruling on bail applications.
