A former Commander, Mopol, State House, Abuja, CSP Rabo Lawal, one of those standing trial in attempted murder of Mr Alex Ibru, The Guardian publisher, yesterday said it was wrong for the police to handcuff a suspect under interrogation.Responding to questions under cross-examinations by counsel before Justice Mufurtau Olokooba, the accused person also said he was persuaded to sign a statement implicating him over the alleged crime and other nefarious cases under the late Gen Sani Abacha's adminstration.

Lawal is standing trial of conspiracy and attempted murder with Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, ex CSO to the late Gen. Sani Abacha; ex-Lagos Police boss, Mr James Danbaba; and the former Military Administrator of Zamfara State, Col. Jubrin Bala Yakubu (rtd).

At the conclusion of yesterday's proceedings, Justice Mufutau Olokooba of the Ikeja High Court fixed April 22, 2009 for the adoption of written addresses of both prosecution and defence counsel in the on-going trial within trial on the admissibility of statements written by the accused persons in the attempted murder charge.

Justice Olokooba in his ruling ordered counsel on both sides to file their written addresses within 14 days, insisting that he would not tolerate anything that would delay the substantive trial.

Lagos state Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs. Olabisi Ogungbesan, had cross-examined Lawal over his testimonies that he was forced to sign statements being used against him at the trial by the investigators at the Special Investigative Panel put up by the Federal Government under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

During cross-examination, Lawal told the court that he was not the author of the statement accredited to him by the Special Investigative Panel (SIP), adding that he wrote from a copy given to him by the chairman of the panel, Monday Udo Ubong, in order to preserve his life.

"Monday Udo Ubong promised to exonerate me and make me a prosecution witness if I copy the statement and endorse the form to back the voluntariness of my writing the statement," he said.

"My lord, my resistance and freewill was virtually broken because I couldn't imagine such abnormal investigation in a civilian era. As a retired police officer, because I was told I have been retired, it is never normal. In fact, it is forbidden to handcuff and leg chain a suspect. The instance you can handcuff is when a suspect is violent or likely to escape," he said.