The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, rejected two sets of documents tendered by Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, in his ongoing trial over alleged defamatory remarks against President Bola Tinubu.
Justice Mohammed Umar, in a ruling, declined an oral application by Sowore’s counsel, Mr Marshall Abubakar, seeking to admit printouts of online publications as evidence.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sowore is being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) over alleged false claims in which he referred to President Tinubu as “a criminal” in posts on his X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook accounts.
The rejected documents included media reports on the dismissal of 115 DSS officials for misconduct, the prosecution of five former governors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the sacking of 27 EFCC officials for fraud and misconduct, and the arrest of ex-staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over alleged N7.2 billion fraud.
Justice Umar agreed with counsel to the DSS, Mr Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, that the documents could not be tendered through the prosecution witness, who had stated under cross-examination that he had no knowledge of the publications.
“You cannot tender a document through a witness who said he does not know anything about it,” the judge ruled, marking the documents as rejected.
In a similar ruling, the court also rejected another set of documents purportedly showing past comments allegedly made by President Tinubu against former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo.
Justice Umar rejected the documents on the same grounds.
The judge, however, expressed concern over allegations by the prosecution that proceedings in the case were live-streamed by a member of the defence team, describing such an act as contempt of court.
Although Abubakar denied the allegation and urged the court to merely caution against a recurrence, Justice Umar said the issue was serious and could warrant investigation, but later adjourned without making a final pronouncement on the matter.
During cross-examination, the second prosecution witness, Mr Cyril Nosike, a DSS official, said President Tinubu’s official X handle at the time of the alleged offence was @officialABAT and not @PBAT.
Nosike denied knowledge of claims relating to corruption cases cited by the defence, global corruption rankings, or alleged statements attributed to President Tinubu against former political figures.
After prolonged cross-examination of the first prosecution witness, Justice Umar granted the defence one final adjournment “in the spirit of fairness.”
The court adjourned the matter until March 5 for the continuation of cross-examination.