Court adjourns Sowore’s treasonable felony trial till April 1

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, adjourned the trial of the convener of the RevolutionNow protest, Omoleye Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawole Bakare, till April 1.

The judge adjourned the case on a day the Federal Government, through the Office of the Attorney- General of the Federation, called its first witness to establish the two-count treasonable felony charge it filed against the defendants.

However, the witness, Mr. Rasheed Olawale, who is a Principal Staff Officer of the Department of State Service (DSS), could not proceed with his oral evidence before the court following an objection by counsel to the defendants, Femi Falana (SAN).

Falana told the court that the prosecution served his clients with the summary statement of the witness.

According to him, the witness gave oral evidence on issues that were outside his written statement that was served on the defendants.

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Though the prosecution counsel, Mr. Aminu Halilu, insisted that copies of summary statement of the witness were duly served on the defendants, Justice Ojukwu upheld Falana’s objection.

She held that it would be wrong for the court to allow the witness to depose to a four-paragraph statement and then proceed to give 10-page oral evidence.

The judge directed the prosecution counsel to serve full statements of all the proposed witnesses on the defendants and adjourned the matter till April 1.

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