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By Correspondent in Abuja.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday adjourned the trial of the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, who is facing charges over alleged defamatory remarks against President Bola Tinubu.
The case, which was scheduled for hearing on Thursday, could not proceed due to the absence of the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Umar, who was said to be attending another official engagement.
Although counsel to the prosecution, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, and defence counsel, Marshall Abubakar, were present in court alongside the defendant and a prosecution witness, the proceedings were stalled due to the judge’s absence.
Sowore is being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) for allegedly making false claims against President Tinubu by referring to him as “a criminal” in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook accounts.
Earlier in the proceedings on February 4, Justice Umar rejected two sets of documents tendered by the defence in the ongoing trial.
The judge, in a ruling, declined an oral application by Sowore’s lawyer seeking to admit a set of documents comprising printouts of various publications as evidence.
The publications included media reports on the DSS dismissing 115 officials for misconduct; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuting five former governors for corruption; the EFCC dismissing 27 of its officials over fraud and misconduct
It also includes the arrest of some former staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over an alleged N7.2 billion fraud.
In his ruling, Justice Umar agreed with the DSS lawyer that the appropriate stage for the defendant to tender such documents would be during the presentation of his defence.
The judge held that since the first prosecution witness (PW-1), Cyril Nosike, an operative of the DSS, had stated during cross-examination that he had no knowledge of the publications contained in the documents, they could not be admitted through him.
In another ruling, Justice Umar also rejected a second set of documents consisting of printouts of publications which the defence claimed showed that President Tinubu had previously referred to former President Goodluck Jonathan as “a drunkard and sinking fisherman,” and described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as “expired meat.”
The judge marked the documents as rejected for the same reasons earlier stated.
Justice Umar, however, expressed displeasure over a report by the prosecuting counsel that a member of the defence team allegedly live-streamed earlier court proceedings.
He warned that such conduct could amount to contempt of court and urged that those responsible be identified.
Abubakar, however, denied that any member of the defence team was involved, suggesting that the act could have been carried out by officials of the DSS or persons within the presidency.
The defence counsel urged the court to caution against a recurrence of such an incident rather than ordering an investigation as requested by the prosecution.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
