James Sowole
9 January 2009
Akure — The resumed sitting of the Military Court Martial trying 28 soldiers who protested last year over the non-payment of their foreign mission allowance became rowdy yesterday at the 323 Artillery Regiment in Akure, the Ondo state capital.
Hot arguments ensued between the counsel to the accused, Mr. Femi Falana, and the President of the Court, Brigadier-General Ishaya Bauka, during the sitting.
The rowdy session led to the abrupt and long adjournment of the court till June 1, 2009, the adjournment which Falana described as too far considering how long the accused had been in detention.
The rowdy situation began when Falana in his submission yesterday app-lied that the President of the court should mount the witness box following his reported statement in Sokoto as reported in the THISDAY Newspaper edition of September 18, 2008 where he was quoted as saying the accused soldiers would not go unpunished.
The reported statement of Bauka led to the call by Falana that he should disqualify himself from hearing the matter alleging that he had already made up his mind to punish the soldiers irrespective of their def-ence.
The Court President had earlier rejected the testimony of a witness counsel, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele, who wanted to testify on the statement Bauka made and reported in the daily newspaper.
A copy of ThisDay newspaper edition of September 18, 2008 which was also tendered across the Bar as evidence by Falana to prove that Bauka actually made the statement was ignored by the court which described it as a farce.
Bauka who was not comfortable with Falana's application hurriedly pa-cked the entire case file on the table, saying "Do you think you can come here to abuse us, go and bring the maker of the report in the newspaper, this case is hereby adjourned to June 1, 2009".
At the early stage of the proceedings, the court president had queried the possibility of a counsel in a case to mount a witness box for testimony, saying: "I want you to show me the version in law where he should come as a witness because I know that a counsel who had been active participant in a case cannot stand as a witness in the same case".
At this point, Falana argued that there was no law or rule which says lawyers cannot give evidence if not related to privilege information saying "every witness is a compellable witness".
Falana's position was objected to by the prosecuting counsel, Lt. Colonel T.S Nurseman, who cited Aguda Law Report page 303 fourth edition which stipulated that counsel must be detached from giving material evidence in court.
Nurseman added that he could not even swear into affidavit saying "it is deface and must be totally ignored. We opposed his evidence because it had no evidential value, it would have personalized the issue, so we are opposing it".
In his ruling, Bauka said the counsel cannot give evidence as cited by the prosecution counsel in Aguda Law Report page 303 fourth edition.
When all efforts by Falana to tender the material from the Bar failed, he thereafter applied that the President should be put into witness box which did not go down well with Bauka.
As Falana was trying to seek for an adjournment till next Wednesday to enable him produce the author of the report, the Court President and other members packed their case files and hurried out of the court room.
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