Kabara, legal team clash as five defence lawyers withdraw

The trial of Islamic cleric, Abduljabbar Kabara, took fresh twist yesterday, as the lead defence counsel, Mohammad Saleh, and four others served the sharia court a notice of withdrawal from the blasphemy case.

The atmosphere at the Kofar Kudu Upper Sharia Court, however, became tense, when the defendant accused his lawyers of misleading him to accept certain conditions in the charges against him. He told the court that the technicalities that had been invoked by his lawyers were simply meant to derail his trial.

When the matter came up for further mention, yesterday, the representative of the defendant’s team of lawyers, Haruna Magashi, submitted an application notifying the court of their intention to withdraw from the matter.

Although, Magashi declined to reveal the rationale behind their decision to pull out of the case, he had told the presiding judge, Ibrahim Yola, that the defendant was fully aware of their decision.

Earlier, the presiding jury, after presenting the medical evaluation reports to the court, ruled that the embattled cleric never suffered from mental health and hearing disease as affirmed by clinical certificates received from Psychiatric and Murtala Mohammed hospitals.

Reacting to the lawyers’ withdrawal notice, prosecution counsel, Suraj Sa’ida (SAN), who did not object to his opponents’ decision to pull out, however, queried why the case would not continue with the other lawyers.

Sa’ida’s argument was later put to rest when Magashi declined to speak on behalf of other lawyers.

In a swift response to the demand by his lawyers, Kabara said: “I am not opposing their withdrawal. But at this point, I need to clarify some salient issues surrounding the decision by my lawyers to withdraw from this case.

“Their withdrawal is about some questions I asked them, which they failed to give me satisfactory explanation. My questions to my lawyers affect even you, the judge, which they failed to explain.”

Attempt by Kabara to further furnish the court with detailed information about what transpired between him and his team of his lawyers was abruptly interrupted by Magashi who drew the attention of the court to the implication of failure to respect the rules of secrecy and confidentiality that regulate the relationship between legal practitioners and their clients.

Magashi urged the court to invoke its powers to protect the confidentiality of legal practice from utterances that could degrade the credibility of legal ethics and practice.

While ruling, Yola admitted the notice of withdrawal, adding that the lawyers, henceforth, were no longer parties to the case. He cautioned the former defence team to maintain neutrality while the matter lasts before the court.

When the court granted Kabara the audience, he said: “Two days before coming to the court for the last sitting, the lawyers came to the correctional facility where I was detained. They informed me that I was going to appear in court and that the charges would be read to me. Then they cautioned me that those charges were traps set to frame me, that if I accept those allegations, I have walked into a technical suicide trap.

“They told me that the judgment had already been written against me by this court, and that the only way out for me is to keep quiet. At this point, I asked them the implication of my keeping quiet. They told me that they would handle it; that after the case, they would address the press. They demanded N500,000 to organise a press conference, and I provided them with N300,000.”

He then requested the court to permit him to exercise his right to fair hearing by adjourning the matter to enable him secure the services of a new team of lawyers. The prosecution did not object to the request.

So, the court adjourned the matter till September 30, 2021, for the defendant to secure a new team to appear in his defence.