Posted by Henry Ojelu & Amos Fajinmi on
One of the prosecuting witnesses in the attempted murder case against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former chief security officer to the late General Sanni Abacha, and three others, Mr. Sunday Maichibi, a deputy Superintendent of Police, has been described as a hostile witness by the state.
One of the prosecuting witnesses in the attempted murder case against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former chief security officer to the late General Sanni Abacha, and three others, Mr. Sunday Maichibi, a deputy Superintendent of Police, has been described as a hostile witness by the state.
Lagos Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs. Odugbesan, disclosed this yesterday, at the hearing of the case at the Ikeja High Court. She alleged that the witnesses had been bought over.
'I apply to make this witness a hostile witness according to Section 207 of the Evidence Act. We have the feeling that some of our witnesses are being reached, coerced and intimidated,' she told the court.
Mrs. Odugbesan disclosed that she had intelligence report alleging that the defence had been able to influence the witnesses to change their earlier statements.
She maintained: 'We owe a duty to the public to prosecute this case and posterity will judge us if we fail in our duty.' Maichibi is the 7th prosecution witness in the attempted murder charge preferred against Mustapha and others.
She applied for adjournment to retrieve the earlier statements of the witnesses. The matter was adjourned till Monday, 23 and 26 September, 2008.
Earlier, Maichibi told the court that he worked with one of the accused, James Danbaba, and that he met him in the course of his job.
'I met Col. Yakubu at SIP and Rabo Lawal too at SIP, Abuja, between 1995 and 1996. Then, I was attached to the special anti-robbery squad, Lagos. Danbaba asked me to come to Lagos to see him. He asked me to see Bamaiyi in his office and Bamaiyi told us some people were coming to overthrow the government.
'Later, we retired to the barracks to see Colonel Yakubu. We held meetings and other members of the squad were brought to us. During subsequent briefings, we were asked to carry out surveillance on the airport, but those people never came and we reported back to Col. Yakubu who was co-ordinating the operations. Then the issue of Porbeni came up. 'They said we had to go to Delta State and carry out surveillance on Pat Utomi, the Director of Lagos Business School, just like Porbeni who we could not see.
'During our trips to Delta and Makurdi, we had AK 47. Whenever we were going out, we carried arms for our protection. I can't recollect anything that could link the persons in the dock. There was no instruction given me about Kudirat in 1996,' he said.