Yelwata attack suspect slumps in court, judge postpones terrorism trial

The trial of nine defendants linked to the June 2025 Yelwata, Benue State, massacre stalled on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja after one of the suspects slipped into unconsciousness and slumped before proceedings started.

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The suspect, Haruna Abdullahi, the third defendant, slumped from his seat, falling to the floor and leaving prison officials scrambling to revive him.

The prison officials helped him back onto his chair, but he remained unresponsive.

He was still unconscious after the judge arrived to start proceedings.

Mr Abdullahi is standing terrorism trial alongside eight others for the fatal attack on the agrarian Yelwata community in Benue State, North-central Nigeria, on 13 June 2025.

The suspected terrorists allegedly burnt down houses in the community, massacred about 150 people and inflicted various degrees of injuries on many others.

Apart from Mr Abdullahi, the other defendants facing prosecution over the bloody attack include Ardo Lawal Mohammed Dono, and Ardo Muhammadu Saidu.

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The rest are Yakubu Adamu, Musa Mohammed, Abubakar Adamu, Shaibu Ibrahim, Sale Mohammed, and Bako Jibrin.

They all pleaded not guilty to the 57 terrorism charges during their arraignment on 2 February.

The all-male defendants, who were not granted bail by the court, have been attending proceedings from prison since their arraignment.

On 9 March, the first defendant, Ardo Muhammadu Saidu, through his lawyer, denied the voluntariness of his extra-judicial statement obtained during investigations.

The defence lawyer raised the objection when the prosecution sought to tender the disputed statement and those of seven other defendants through the first prosecution witness.

Other defence lawyers representing the seven other defendants also objected to the admissibility of their clients’ statements.

This prompted the judge, Joyce Abdulmalik, to order a trial-within-trial to ascertain the claims that the statements were obtained under duress as alleged by the defence.

The trial-within-trial started on 13 March and was meant to continue Tuesday.

PREMIUM TIMES observed that prison officials brought the defendants to court had had them seated at about 10 a.m.

They were waiting for the judge to arrive in the courtroom to commence hearing when the third defendant, Haruna Abdullahi, suddenly fell from his seat unconscious.

The prison officials tried to revive him and later helped him back onto his seat, but he remained unresponsive.

He was still unconscious at about noon when the case was called after the judge arrived.

Forced adjournment

After the case was called up, a court official confirmed to the judge that all the defendants were present.

However, the judge observed that one of the defendants appeared unconscious.

“You can’t say he is present,” the judge said, noting that he had “been like that for over an hour.”

Reacting to the situation, the prosecution, led by Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, told the judge that, based on information from prison officials, the defendant was fine before arriving in court and only became unwell in the courtroom.

Responding, the defendant’s lawyer, Ahmed Muhammad, said, “The third defendant came in by himself, but unfortunately, he collapsed. We humbly request that he be taken to a facility for treatment.”

Another defence lawyer, Ibrahim Angulu, also a SAN urged the court to allow the defendant to receive medical attention on humanitarian grounds.

“Human beings are very fragile. If he is pretending, when we get to the hospital they will tell us, because one has to be alive to face trial,” he said.

Mr Oyedepo supported the request for an adjournment to enable prison officials to care for the defendant.

The judge granted the request and ordered that hearing notices be served on defence lawyers A. I. Kaura and Y. A. Hassan, who were absent from court.

Ms Abdulmalik adjourned the case until 30 and 31 March for continuation of trial.

Backstory

On 2 February, the Nigerian government arraigned the defendants linked to the 13 June 2025 attack on Yelwata village in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.

After their arraignment, the prosecution called its first witness, Moses Paul, a senior officer of the Nigeria Police Force’s Intelligence Response Unit.

Mr Paul narrated the circumstances of the attack, stating that the assailants, armed with rifles, stormed the community after holding prior meetings in Nasarawa State. He said investigations led to the recovery of an AK-47 rifle from one of the defendants, Mr Saidu.

The judge admitted the rifle and some naira notes as evidence.

After Mr Paul’s testimony, the prosecution sought to tender the defendants’ statements, including those obtained in June last year and that of the second defendant taken in November, except for the eighth defendant.

However, the defence lawyers objected to the admissibility of the statements, which they claimed were obtained from their clients under duress.

This prompted the trial-within-trial that was meant to continue on Tuesday.