Michael Jego, an operative of the Department of State Services (DSS), has told a federal high court in Abuja how John Agbo was traced and arrested over alleged threats to attack three schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Jego gave the account
on Friday while testifying before Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, in the
ongoing trial.
Agbo is being prosecuted on charges of terrorism and
cybercrime over a series of messages sent to Premier International School, The
Regent Secondary School, and Oakland International British School.
According to the prosecution, the messages warned of planned
attacks on the schools and threatened the lives of students and teachers.
While leading evidence, Calistus Eze, counsel to the DSS,
asked the witness to explain how the investigation began.
Jego told the court that the agency acted on petitions
submitted by the affected schools in 2024 after receiving threatening SMS from
multiple phone lines.
He said one of the petitions, dated November 28, 2024, came
from Oakland International School.
From there, he said, the DSS deployed tracking tools that
led operatives to Otukpo in Benue state, where Agbo was arrested.
“A mobile phone and a SIM card were recovered from him at
the point of arrest,” he said.
“The defendant was subsequently moved to Abuja, where he
made a statement in the presence of a lawyer from the Legal Aid Council of
Nigeria.”
Jego also told the court that the suspect was linked to four
phone numbers allegedly used to send the messages.
In one of the messages, the sender threatened to attack the
schools and kill both students and teachers, claiming that carrying out the
attack would take less than a minute.
During the proceedings, the prosecution tendered several
items, including the Tecno Android phone recovered from the defendant,
petitions from the schools, and a compact disc containing audio and video
recordings of the interrogation.
A copy of the defendant’s extra-judicial statement was also
admitted in evidence.
The defence, led by Hamza Dantani, did not object to the
admissibility of the exhibits.
However, under cross-examination, Jego acknowledged that the
petitions received by the DSS did not identify the defendant by name.
He also said the phone numbers were supplied by the schools,
alongside copies of the messages.
When asked about ownership of the lines, the witness said he
could not confirm if they belonged to Agbo but maintained that the defendant
admitted involvement in drafting the messages.
Agbo, who admitted being familiar with the phone presented
in court, denied owning it.
At the close of the session, the prosecution asked for more
time to present additional witnesses and evidence.
The defence raised no objection.
The judge adjourned the case to May 12 for continuation of
trial.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com