Prosecution witness tenders slain ex-presidential adviser’s death certificate in Nnamdi Kanu’s trial

A prosecution witness, on Wednesday, tendered in evidence at a hearing of the terrorism charges against Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu a copy of the death certificate of Ahmed Gulak, a former presidential adviser murdered in 2021 allegedly by the proscribed group.

Mr Gulak, who served as Special Adviser on Political Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan up to 2015, was shot dead in Owerri, the Imo State capital, during a visit to the state in May 2021.

The Nigerian government blamed the killing on IPOB, a proscribed pro-Biafra organisation. But the group denied involvement in the killing at the time.

According to the government, Mr Gulak’s killing was one in a series of deadly attacks linked to IPOB under a stay-at-home reign imposed on the South-east region by Mr Kanu, as part of his group’s broader secessionist movement.

Mr Kanu is standing trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on terrorism and treasonable felony charges arising from his campaign for the secession of Biafra Republic made up of Nigeria’s Igbo-dominated South-east states and some parts of neighbouring states.

Death certificate

On Wednesday, the prosecution team presented its second witness, identified by the codename BBB in line with the court’s earlier witness protection ruling, to prove its case against Mr Kanu.

The witness, who testified behind a shield hiding him from the view of the court audience, tendered a certified true copy of the death certificate for Mr Gulak to back the prosecution’s case.

Led by the prosecution lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the witness maintained on Wednesday that the sit-at-home directive which Mr Kanu ordered in a radio broadcast to be enforced throughout the South-east states led to Mr Gulak’s killing.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the witness confirmed to trial judge James Omotosho that he participated in the investigations into Mr Gulak’s death.

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Fielding other questions from the prosecution lawyer, the witness said he had with him in the courtroom a copy of Mr Gulak’s death certificate obtained from the police. According to him, he death certificate was dated 18 July 2021.

When the prosecution opted to tender the document in evidence, defence lawyer, Kanu Agabi, a SAN and former Attorney-General of the Federation, said he had no objection. The judge then admitted the document and marked it Exhibit PWJ.

Under the direction of the prosecution lawyer, the witness read the content of the death certificate.

His reading indicated it was from the Nigerian police, Owerri, Imo State, and about the death of Mr Gulak.

The document, from the reading by the witness, stated that Mr Gulak was shot dead by hoodlums belonging to IPOB in 2021.

After the prosecution finished with the witness, Mr Agabi began cross-examining him.

Mr Gulak, who served in the then-President Jonathan administration as a presidential adviser as a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2018, about three years after his former party lost power.

A former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, the politician was shot dead on Saturday, 29 May 2021, night by some gunmen during his visit to Owerri, Imo State.

Mr Gulak was shot while he was on his way from Imo to Abuja.

He was the chairman of the committee which conducted the 2019 APC governorship primary in Imo State that produced the incumbent Governor of the state, Hope Uzodinma, as the candidate of the party.

Owerri, with a large concentration of IPOB members and supporters, has been the epicentre of clashes between security agencies and IPOB in the South-east region.

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Several security operatives, including soldiers, have been killed in deadly attacks in the city.

Mr Gulak’s killing happened at the height of IPOB’s enforcement of a stay-at-home directive on Mondays in the South-east at the time. IPOB denied its members killed the politician.

In June 2021, weeks after Mr Gulak was killed, the Nigerian government arrested Mr Kanu in Kenya, about three years after he escaped from Nigeria following the invasion of his home while on bail at his home in Abia State.

Mr Kanu, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United Kingdom, was brought back to Nigeria to continue his stalled trial that started in 2015.

(NAN)