An Abuja Federal High Court heard the case on Wednesday over the 2021 murder of Ahmad Gulak, a former presidential adviser, in Imo State.
In the South East, the court also heard how the actions of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network, resulted in the deaths of 170 to 200 security personnel.
The court also learned that Nnamdi Kanu, the arrested self-proclaimed leader of IPOB, was not granted a license by the National Broadcasting Commission to import the radio transmitter he allegedly sneaked into the nation in order to run Radio Biafra.
In the current terrorism trial of Kanu, a Department of State Services official provided the depositions while testifying as the fourth prosecution witness.
Led in evidence by prosecuting attorney Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), the witness informed the court that one member of the ESN, identified as Uzuoma Benjamin, also known as Onye Army, described how they allegedly received orders from Kanu to kill security personnel and make sure that a deceased group member, Ikonso, was buried with two thousand human heads.
After more research, only 30 of the 2000 human skulls that were sought to bury Ikonso were ultimately found, according to the DSS official.
The witness further read that the aforementioned Onye Army asserted that he and other members of his group made charms for the protection of ten girls by using their heads.
According to him, the inquiry showed that Kanu had ordered his followers to attack and murder security personnel of the Federal Government of Nigeria in one of his broadcasts, which led to the IPOB militants’ invasion of Owerri jail.
According to the witness, the DSS sent a letter to the NBC asking them to examine the transmitter shortly after he and his crew located it in Ubuluisiuzor, Anambra State, and transported it to Abuja.
According to the witness, NBC sent an engineer on November 9, 2015, who examined the transmitter and prepared a report.
After that, Awomolo presented a verified true copy of the NBC’s interim evaluation of the radio transmitter report.
When requested to read a section of the report, the witness complied. He added that the report showed that the transmitter was indeed a radio transmitter designed for FM use and that it was manufactured in Germany.
The witness said that the report also claimed that Radio Biafra had not been granted a license by the NBC to broadcast in Nigeria and that such a transmitter could only be purchased and placed after receiving a license.
According to the DSS officer, his team’s inquiry showed that in order to run a radio station in the nation, one must apply to a regulator, who will grant a license following the necessary approval by the appropriate security authorities.
“The defendant did not submit an application in this case (Kanu’s case); he brought the transmitter in unlawfully and without authorization,” the witness stated.
He added that the inquiry had verified that the defendant was the owner of the transmitter, which he had stored on Benjamin Madubugu’s property.
To appease IPOB members who had contributed funds for the transmitter’s purchase, the witness claimed that Kanu later traveled to the nation, examined the transmitter, and produced a video.
Additionally, he perused sections of the Vanguard newspaper that revealed an ESN leader who had been detained had admitted to the group’s activities.
The police said that Onye Army had escaped from custody when the DSS asked them to grant access to him, he said.
He stated that when DSS agents raided the hideout of ESN members, “we saw some ESN members, about seven, with human heads and some eating human flesh, which they said was for spiritual fortification,” he noted.
We failed to locate Onye Army. According to the authorities, he had fled from detention.
The number of security agents who are supposedly killed in the South East is between 170 and 200, according to documents, he claimed.
According to the witness, the casualties included two DSS personnel, including his driver, and the incident affected all security agencies.
According to the witness, ESN members behave like warriors, carrying weapons, and attacking the residences of local leaders and notable figures.
He claimed that because they lacked adequate operating instruments, they occasionally erected barricades and used automobiles to carry out their operations.
The witness named a number of South East public buildings, including police stations, that he claimed were attacked and demolished by IPOB and ESN members.
The witness described how he was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the late politician’s murder and the recovery of his body.
He stated in one of his programs that the defendant’s stay-at-home order caused a complete collapse of law and order on May 30, 2021.
According to the witness, later that day one of his policemen told him that a well-known politician had been killed in the Obiagwu area, and they arrived at the scene to witness the incident.
He said that he was informed by the local Divisional Police Officer (DPO) that Gulak was assassinated by several IPOB members while riding in a leased taxi.
The witness claimed that the driver informed him that they were traveling from Owerri town to the airport when they noticed a checkpoint set up by Nigerian Air Force personnel barring people from entering. They chose to take a different route, but once they did, they encountered an IPOB checkpoint.
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According to the driver, the IPOB militants told the three people in the car to get out of the vehicle and requested to know their tribes, he continued.
When he introduced himself, the driver informed him that he was Igbo, and Gulak confirmed that he was an Igbo man. A Muslim prayer was inscribed on Gulak’s forehead after they requested him to take off his cap, despite the fact that he (the driver) was able to communicate in Igbo when they asked him to do so.
The driver stated, according to the witness, that one of the IPOB militants said, “He is one of them,” after noticing the prayer marked, and that they then fired and murdered him.
According to the DSS official, who claimed to have worked in Imo State from 2019 to 2023, the deceased’s body was taken from the scene of his death in his (the witness’) vehicle.
During cross-examination by defense attorney Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), the witness admitted that there was no documentation of the importation of the transmitter that Kanu was allegedly smuggling into the nation.
He claimed he was one of those who found the transmitter’s storage location in Anambra State and transported it to the DSS headquarters in Abuja, but he was unable to estimate when it was brought into the nation.
Upon being questioned about his knowledge of Radio Biafra’s London registration and broadcasting, the witness stated that Kanu’s broadcast equipment was confiscated when he was detained in Lagos in 2016.
He said he was not there when the defendant was arrested in Lagos and that the only information he shared about the arrest was what he was told.
