By TAIYE AGBAJE

The Federal High Court has granted a prayer by the Department of State Services (DSS) to expedite proceedings in the trial of the suspected mastermind of the Aug. 26, 2011 bombing of the UN Building in Abuja, Khalid Al-Barnawi and 4 others.

Justice Emeka Nwite granted the request after the DSS lawyer, Alex Iziyon, SAN, moved the application on the ground that the service is prepared to ensure that the case is determined expeditiously.

In the application, which was not opposed by the respective defendants’ counsel, parties would be allowed to watch video recordings presented by the DSS to prove that the extrajudicial statements given by the suspects were done voluntarily as against the claim of some of the defendants.

It was agreed that the video clips would be played in the presence of the court registar and parties would take notes after which they would return to the court in the next adjourned date.

Justice Nwite then adjourned the matter until Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the DSS had, in April 2016, arrested Al- Barnawi in Lokoja in Kogi, five years after the attack on the Abuja UN Building.

The attack, the first of such in Nigeria on an international organisation, left over 20 persons dead and over 70 others injured.

However, several legal and administrative issues had stalled Al-Barnawi’s trial, which began shortly after his arrest in 2016.

NAN reports that Al-Barnawi is being prosecuted on terrorism related charges along with other suspected members of his group.

Other co-defendants include Mohammed Bashir Saleh; Umar Mohammed Bello, a.k.a Datti; Mohammmed Salisu and Yakubu Nuhu, a.k.a Bello Maishayi.

They are among others, accused of being members of Ansaru terrorist group, also known as Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan.

The defendants are also alleged to have conspired among themselves to carry out acts of terrorism between 2011 and 2013 in Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe and other states in the northern part of the country.

The U.S. had, in 2012, placed a $5 million (£3.5m) bounty on Al-Barnawi’s head after branding him one of three Nigerian “specially designated global terrorists.”

Ansaru is said to be ideologically aligned to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and is also accused of killing a number of Westerners.

Ansaru was reported to have claimed that it carried out an attack on a maximum security prison in Abuja in 2012 during which dozens of inmates were freed. (NAN)