The Department of State Services has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja to refuse bail to these suspects.
In a counter-affidavit to the defendants’ bail request, the DSS cautioned that the men would flee if they were freed because they allegedly had connections to foreign terrorist fighters associated with the Al-Shabab organization.
Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26), Abdulhaleem Idris (25), Al Qasim Idris (20), and Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25), are the defendants.
On August 11, they were charged with nine charges of terrorism-related offenses, designated FHC/ABJ/CR/301/2025.
The DSS contended that granting bail would jeopardize the trial and jeopardize the safety of witnesses. Given their ties to foreign fighters associated with the Al-Shabab terrorist group, it stated: “Defendants have a very high chance of avoiding trial.” In an attempt to keep an eye on their trial, threaten witnesses, and release the defendants from legal custody, the defendants’ accomplices are still at large. The DSS revealed that it was “presently looking into the leads in order to catch those people, intending to threaten witnesses and jeopardize the trial in the applicants’ favor.”
“The prosecution witnesses have stated that they will not attend court sessions until their fears are allayed, as they have expressed fears of attacks by the defendants’ cohorts.” Because of this, an ex parte application for witness protection had to be filed. The prosecution has shown that they are prepared for the substantive charge to be tried quickly.
To demonstrate that they have reliable sureties, the defendants have not offered any supporting documentation.
According to the DSS, “granting the application for bail will not be in the interest of justice and security of prosecution witnesses.”
When submitting the bail application on Tuesday, defense attorney Abdullahi Mohammad mentioned that his clients had been detained since their 2022 arrest.
According to Mohammad, his clients were prepared to provide trustworthy and dependable sureties as proof of their willingness to stand trial.
However, Dr. Calistus Eze, the prosecuting attorney, urged the court to deny the bail request on the grounds that it was unmeritorious.
According to Eze, the defense attorney was aware of the continuous threats against potential prosecution witnesses.
Justice Emeka Nwite postponed making a decision on the bail application until September 10 after hearing arguments from both attorneys.
Eze informed the court earlier at the start of the hearings that although though the prosecution was supposed to open its case on Tuesday, it would not be able to do so because the DSS had assigned a senior attorney, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), to head the prosecuting team.
In order to allow Adedipe to completely assume responsibility for the case’s treatment, Eze asked the court to postpone it until after the DSS had processed the required fiat from the Attorney General of the Federation’s office.
Eze asked for an adjournment, and Muhammad did not oppose. Additionally, he did not raise any objections to Eze’s subsequent application, which sought to safeguard the identity and other private information of the prosecution’s witnesses.
The prosecution also requested that the court issue an order prohibiting the use of the actual names of prosecution witnesses in its rulings, orders, or publicly accessible records. The order would allow witnesses to be identified by a combination of certain alphabets.
Justice Nwite granted the application in a succinct ruling.
