The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) for an accelerated hearing in the trial of Khalid Al-Barnawi, the alleged mastermind of the August 26, 2011 bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, and four others.
Counsel to the DSS, Alex Iziyon (SAN), argued that the service was fully prepared to ensure the case is determined without delay.
The application, which went unopposed by defence counsels, also allows parties to review video recordings intended to prove that the defendants’ confessional statements were made voluntarily, contrary to claims of coercion.
Justice Nwite adjourned the matter to October 23 and 24 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.
Al-Barnawi and his co-defendants, Mohammed Bashir Saleh, Umar Mohammed Bello (a.k.a. Datti), Mohammed Salisu, and Yakubu Nuhu (a.k.a. Bello Maishayi), are facing terrorism charges as alleged members of the proscribed Ansaru group, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan.
They are accused of conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks across northern states between 2011 and 2013, including claims of involvement in a 2012 prison break in Abuja.
Al-Barnawi, arrested in Lokoja in 2016, was previously declared one of three Nigerian “specially designated global terrorists” by the United States, which placed a $5 million bounty on his head.
The 2011 UN House bombing, the first attack on an international organisation in Nigeria, killed more than 20 people and left over 70 others injured.