The trial of Nnamdi Kanu has resumed at the federal high court Abuja with the prosecution’s third witness with the alias CCC giving his testimony.
Mr CCC is a DSS official of 27 years, he identified Kanu as the leader of IPOB- a terrorist group, and also the leader of ESN.
He says that Kanu used his broadcasts on radio Biafra to kill people and cause violence allegedly.
Mr CCC admitted to having met Kanu for the first time in October 2015.
He led the interview with Kanu at the DSS HQ from the 21st to the 23rd of October, and another on October 24th 2015.
The interviews were recorded and Kanu did not object to them being recorded and he also gave written statements.
Prosecuting counsel Adegboyega Awomolo brought out two compact disks which the witness identified as the recording of the interviews.
The two CDs were tendered and admitted in evidence.
Awomolo also produced 3 copies of written statements which the witness identified as made by Kanu.
Initially, counsel to the Mr Nnamdi Kanu
did not object to the statements being admitted in court, but he later informed the court that Nnamdi Kanu just told him that he gave those statements under duress.
Justice Omotosho asked Agabi to point out the elements of involuntariness in each of the statements.
Mr Agabi asked to confer with his client Kanu and Justice Omotosho granted him.
Kanu’s counsel told the court that Kanu said that he had asked for his lawyer to be present when he was taking the statements but DSS refused.
Secondly, he was being detained in solitary confinement inside a dungeon, and the DSS officer who took the statement was Mr Brown and not Mr CCC in the witness dock had threatened that if he didn’t write what he was told, he would not be brought out of the dungeon.
Also Mr Kanu through his lawyer said that he had developed nose bleeding while in the dungeon and a DSS doctor had advised that he should be allowed at least one hour of fresh air to stop the nose bleeds.
The DSS officer allegedly threatened that if he didn’t cooperate, one hour of fresh air would be withdrawn from him.
He alleged that the DSS forced him to write down certain things about the then president Goodluck Jonathan and the then governor of Imo state Rochas Okorocha.
Prosecuting counsel told the court that the allegations of duress are false and cannot be substantiated.
He said they have video evidence of Kanu as he was being interviewed and as he was making the written statements, and there is no evidence of any kind of harassment or duress on Kanu by the DSS.
Justice Omotosho ordered a trial within trial to ascertain the veracity of the allegations of duress.
During this trial within trial, Mr CCC said he cannot remember any of his colleagues named Mr Brown during their interview of Kanu.
His other colleagues who took the statement were Ibrahim and No Mr Brown.
Mr Kanu did not make any request for his counsel during the interview.
Mr Kanu was not in solitary confinement during his detention at the DSS.
“I am shocked to hear him now say that his statement was taken under duress,” Mr CCC said.
He also denied that Kanu was forced to make any comment about President Jonathan or Rochas Okorocha the then-governor of Imo State.
Mr CCC said that during the interview of 24 October 2015, they played for the defendant an interview he granted to Sahara Reporters wherein he referred to Nigeria as a zoo, alleged that Rochas Okorocha was trying to Islamise the southeast region, and referred to President Muhammadu Buhari in very derogatory terms.
Mr CCC noted that after they played the video to the defendant, he admitted that he granted the interview.
The prosecuting counsel presented the videos of the interviews they had with Kanu to the court and it was admitted.
The witness said that after the interview on October 24, Kanu was again interviewed on 4th November 2015.
In that interview, a video was played for Kanu where he was saying that he had inspected a radio transmitter which he smuggled into Nigeria and set up at Ubuluisiuzor in Anambra State.
He said that Kanu admitted that he was the one in the video.
A CD plate of that interview of November 4 was tendered in court.
