The trial of nine suspects linked to the June 2025 Yelwata killings, reported to have claimed about 150 lives, was on Tuesday stalled after one of the defendants collapsed in court.
The defendants — Ardo Lawal Mohammed Dono, Ardo Muhammadu Saidu, Alhaji Haruna Abdullahi, Yakubu Adamu, Musa Mohammed, Abubakar Adamu, Shaibu Ibrahim, Sale Mohammed, and Bako Jibrin — are facing 57 terrorism-related charges filed by the Federal Government.
They had pleaded not guilty at their arraignment and have since been attending trial from custody.
Proceedings before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court were scheduled for continuation of a trial-within-trial to determine the admissibility of the defendants’ confessional statements.
However, the session was disrupted when the third defendant, Abdullahi, slumped shortly after the defendants were brought into the courtroom around 10am.
Court officials and prison warders attempted to revive him and later assisted him back to his seat, but he remained unresponsive.
When the matter was called around noon, a court official confirmed the presence of all defendants, but the judge disagreed.
“You can’t say he is present,” Abdulmalik said, noting that the defendant had “been like that for over an hour.”
The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court that prison officials indicated the defendant was in good condition before arriving in court.
Defence counsel, Ahmed Muhammad, however, urged the court to allow the defendant to receive urgent medical attention.
“The third defendant came in by himself, but unfortunately, he collapsed. We humbly request that he be taken to a facility for treatment,” he said.
Another defence lawyer, Ibrahim Angulu (SAN), appealed on humanitarian grounds.
“Human beings are very fragile. If he is pretending, when we get to the hospital, they will tell us, because one has to be alive to face trial,” he said.
Oyedepo did not oppose the request and applied for an adjournment to enable prison authorities to attend to the defendant.
Justice Abdulmalik granted the application and ordered that hearing notices be served on absent defence counsel, A. I. Kaura and Y. A. Hassan.
The case was adjourned till March 30 and 31 for continuation of hearing.
The defendants were arraigned on February 2 over their alleged involvement in the June 13, 2025, attack on the Yelwata community in the Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
At the commencement of the trial, the prosecution called its first witness, a police officer, who narrated how the assailants allegedly carried out the attack and linked some of the defendants to recovered weapons.
Following the testimony, the prosecution sought to tender the defendants’ statements, but the defence objected, prompting the court to order a trial-within-trial.
At the resumed hearing on March 13, the prosecution’s witness insisted the statements were made voluntarily, adding that the process was recorded.
However, proceedings suffered a setback after the prosecution disclosed that the device containing the video recording of the confessional statements was corrupted, drawing caution from the court over delays.
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