Jos Trial: Army Testifies Against General

The Nigerian Army, yesterday, started its evidence against Grig-Gen Nuraini Raji at 3 Armoured Division headquarters in Jos for his alleged role in the escape of two Boko Haram detainees in Bauchi.

The Court Marital got the evidence of Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Vincent Kanu who submitted that the Command of Commander Raji was “an unregimented command” as he did not assign proper duties to the officers under his command.

Laywer to the accused general, Mr. Ayodele Kusamotu, who held forte for the lead lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, cross-examined the prosecution witness.
Kasamotu asked MWO Kanu that if General Raji was not a regimented Commander as he claimed, “whose duty it was to post guards?” Kanu answered that it was the Garrison Commander that posted guards, and when he was asked who asked the Garrison Commander to post those guards to the detention facilities, Kanu said it was the Brigade Commander, Raji, who asked the Garrison Commander to do so.

According to the witness who also answered in the affirmative the question by Kusamotu whether Raji gave order that they should organise security for those in detention.

He said he had never attended Brigadier-General’s courses to know what they do.
When the questions and answers were shown to him which were claimed to have been written by him, he denied that he framed Raji.

Kanu, who was visibly shaking in the witness box, was asked another question because he had alleged that the detainees were high profile detainees if he knew that they were high-profile detainees and whether there was any document from the army pointing to that. But he found himself boxed into a corner and said that he just manufactured the phrase because he liked to use it.

When he was further asked again by the defence lawyer whether he knew the difference between magazine and arm-store, the witness answered in the affirmative and said that it was a place where explosives and dangerous weapons were kept.

He said four guards were posted to the detention facilities and added that there were sufficient guards to secure the place.
The witness said it was clear to him that General Raji had instructed the Garrison Commander to provide sufficient security for the detainees, explaining that the questions put to Raji and the answer form purported to have been signed by him was not after all signed by him.
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