Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has filed a Direct Criminal Complaint before the Chief Magistrate Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, against two hooded prosecution witnesses who testified against him at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The witnesses, identified as Mr. TAA (Prosecution Witness 1) and Mr. BBB (Prosecution Witness 2), were named alongside the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) as defendants.
In the complaint personally signed by Kanu, he accused the defendants of criminal perjury, fabrication of evidence, subornation of perjury, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in the ongoing case of Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu (FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015).
Kanu alleged that PW1 lied under oath during the trial-within-trial by denying knowledge of one Mr. Brown Ekwoaba, a DSS official who allegedly supervised his detention, interrogations, and torture in 2015. He argued that the testimony proved that “PW1 (Mr. TAA) never worked for DSS.”
He further claimed that PW2 also gave false testimony when he told the court he had never met Kanu prior to the proceedings, despite allegedly leading a video-recorded interrogation of him at DSS headquarters on July 17, 2021.
“This masked individual is not a very good liar. In a moment of lapse in concentration, he spoke the truth,” Kanu stated in the complaint.
According to him, both witnesses were masked and shielded to conceal their alleged roles in his interrogations in 2015 and 2021, the chain of custody of interrogation materials, and the conditions under which he was held — including solitary confinement, denial of counsel, and deteriorating health. He argued that this amounted to a coordinated effort to suppress material facts.
Kanu also accused the AGF of suborning perjury by presenting surprise witnesses not listed in the original proof of evidence, relying on statements obtained under torture, resisting disclosure of the identities of interrogators, and benefiting from allegedly false testimony.
Regarding the DSS Director-General, he alleged conspiracy to pervert justice by deploying “masked, coached witnesses,” suppressing exculpatory evidence, and enabling false testimony to secure a wrongful conviction.
He said these actions violate the Penal Code, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, and Sections 34 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which protect against torture and guarantee the right to fair hearing.
Kanu is seeking criminal committal proceedings against the two witnesses, the AGF, and the DSS DG, as well as punishment for perjury and conspiracy under Sections 156, 158, 159, and 160 of the Penal Code. He is also requesting judicial acknowledgment that the prosecution’s case was built on fabricated, coerced, and perjured evidence.
A member of Kanu’s Defence Consortium, Mr. Njoku Jude Njoku, said the filing marks the first time in Nigeria’s legal history that a defendant in DSS custody has independently initiated criminal proceedings from detention, produced documentary evidence alleging state-orchestrated perjury, and directly named the AGF and DSS DG as complicit.
“This complaint demonstrates a growing body of evidence that the prosecution witnesses were manufactured, coached, and deployed to sustain charges otherwise unsupported by lawful, admissible evidence,” he said.
Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had earlier fixed November 20 for judgment in the terrorism charge filed against Kanu by the Federal Government.
