The Federal High Court in Abuja has approved a request by the Department of State Services (DSS) to fast-track the trial of Khalid Al-Barnawi, the suspected mastermind behind the August 26, 2011 bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, along with four co-defendants.
The application for an accelerated hearing was moved by DSS counsel, Alex Iziyon, SAN, who stated that the service is fully prepared to ensure a swift conclusion of the case.
The application, which was not opposed by the defence counsels, also allows parties in the case to view video evidence presented by the DSS. The recordings aim to establish that the defendants’ extrajudicial statements were made voluntarily countering claims by some of the accused that the statements were coerced.
Justice Nwite then adjourned the matter until October 23 and October 24 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.
According to reports that Al-Barnawi is being prosecuted on terrorism related charges along with other suspected members of his group.
Other co-defendants include Mohammed Bashir Saleh; Umar Mohammed Bello, a.k.a Datti; Mohammed Salisu and Yakubu Nuhu, a.k.a Bello Maishayi.
They are, among others, accused of being members of the Ansaru terrorist group, also known as Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan.
The defendants are also alleged to have conspired among themselves to carry out acts of terrorism between 2011 and 2013 in Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, and other states in the northern part of the country.
He was reported to have claimed that it carried out an attack on a maximum security prison in Abuja in 2012 during which dozens of inmates were freed.
The DSS had, in April 2016, arrested Al-Barnawi in Lokoja in Kogi, five years after the attack on the Abuja UN Building.
Earlier, the United States placed a $5 million (£3.5m) bounty on Al-Barnawi’s head after branding him one of three Nigerian “specially designated global terrorists.”
The attack, the first of such in Nigeria on an international organisation, left over 20 persons dead and over 70 others injured.
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