The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was fined N200,000 by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday for obstructing the trial of four co-defendants of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), on treasonable felony charges.
On Wednesday, Nyako ruled that the AGF pay each defendant N50,000 for the difficulties they had as a result of the absence of the Federal Government’s lead counsel, Mr. Shuaib Magaji Labaran.
The judge, who was plainly upset by the rushed nature of the trial, ordered that the N200,000 be paid to the defendants before March 17th, the adjourned date.
The Federal Government had no legal representation throughout the proceedings on Wednesday when the subject was addressed.
As the court was about to make the postponement, a woman from the Federal Ministry of Justice entered and apologized for the fact that the Federal Government’s lead lawyer was out of the country.
She announced that two witnesses had arrived in court, but that she did not want to proceed without the lead counsel present, so she requested an adjournment.
Her apologies did not sit well with the judge, who advised the Nigerian government to take the defendants’ trial more seriously.
The judge also advised the defense lawyers to refrain from issuing frivolous applications in order to prolong the trial, which had begun in 2015.
Meanwhile, Justice Nyako postponed the trial’s resumption until March 17.
