The Department of State Services, DSS, on Wednesday, complied with the judge’s advice not to block access to the premises of the Federal High Court, Abuja and environs over the trial of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the trial judge, Binta Nyako, who fixed today’s (Wednesday’s) sitting at 1 p.m., had advised the operatives of the DSS to inform their office about her recommendation.
Although Mrs Nyako did not specifically make an order, directing the security outfit against such acts, she said this would allow the business of the court not to be grounded.
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A morning check on Wednesday showed that the Federal High Court staff, lawyers, litigants, journalists, among others, had free access into the high-rise building and its surroundings.
As of the time of filing the report, there was free movement of people and vehicles within and outside the court
NAN reports that the judge had, on January 19, advised the DSS not to take over the security arrangement of the court today until 12 p.m.
The court instructed DSS to only take control of the court security arrangement when the trial of Kanu, on terrorism charges, resumes.
Mrs Nyako had complained that trials of other cases were being affected each time Mr Kanu’s trial takes place due to heavy security presence and blockade of roads leading to the court.
She then shifted the terrorism trial till 1 p.m. to ensure that other cases were accommodated.
Beyond the judge’s advice to the DSS to relax restrictions of access to the court during Mr Kanu’s trial, a human rights lawyer, Tope Temokun, has sued the heads of DSS, the Nigerian police, as well as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, over media restrictions barring many journalists from covering the trial.
