Human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), on Monday lampooned the Federal Government and the Department of State Services for barring journalists from covering the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, at the Abuja High Court.
FirstNews had reported that the High Court had shortlisted 10 journalists to cover the trial.
Enforcing the order, our correspondent gathered that several journalists were deterred from entering the court premises Monday morning (today) by the operatives of the DSS.
Barred are The Punch, The Guardian, Vanguard, Daily Trust, Tribune, Daily Sun, The Cable, and Daily Times, among others.
Meanwhile, the accredited are Daily Post, ThisDay, Premium Times, The Nation, Daily Independent, The Herald, National Television Authority, Television Continental, African Independent Television and Channels Television.
Reacting to this, Ozekhome said the position of the law was that every trial should be carried out in public and everyone entitled to watch the proceedings.
According to him, “Our legal system does not admit of secret trials. We are not a country of witches and wizards operating in a coven.
“For a trial to be free and fair, Section 36 of the Constitution says it must be carried out openly and publicly. Banning some media houses from covering Nnamdi Kanu’s trial is not only a sin against Section 36 of the Constitution, but also violently offends the provision of Section 22 of the same Constitution which gives the media the right and responsibility to ensure that the provisions of Chapter Two of the constitution dealing with the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy are upheld and that the government is held accountable to the people of Nigeria.”