A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, heard how operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, trailed and apprehended a terror suspect, John Agbo who sent several messages to some elite schools in Abuja schools, threatening to kill their students and teachers.
An operative of the DSS, Michael Jego, told the court that his agency received petitions from three schools in Abuja in 2024 about text messages from some telephone numbers, with threat to kill students and teachers, and destroy property in the affected schools.
Jego spoke on Friday while testifying as the first prosecution witness (PW1) in the ongoing trial of Agbo, in whose possession the witness said a Techno android phone, allegedly used by the suspect, identified as John Jude Agbo, to send the threat messages, was recovered.
Agbo, who was arraigned on March 17 on a two-count charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/06/2026, is being prosecuted by the DSS under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The DSS, in a case summarily filed in court, said the defendant is “standing trial on charges of using the instrumentality of his GSM numbers: 08124412783, 08069781274, 08105715028 and 09139681108 to send SMS to some schools in Abuja.”
The secret police listed Premier International School, The Regent Secondary School and Oakland International British School, as the schools Agbo sent the threat messages.
The defendant was said to have, in the text messages, “threatened to attack the schools and kill both students and teachers,” stressing that it wouldn’t take them up to a minute to achieve that.
The DSS stated that the act constituted offences contrary to Section 24 (1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and Section 18 (1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (Amendment) Act, 2024.
Led in evidence by lawyer for the prosecution, Dr Calistus Eze, Jego said his team was instructed to investigate a petition received from Oakland International School on November 28, 2024.
The witness said his team, in the course of investigation, deployed technology to track the suspect to Otukpo in Benue State, where he was arrested and a mobile phone and a SIM card recovered from him.
Jego further told the court that the defendant was brought to Abuja and interviewed, following which he volunteered his statement in the presence of a lawyer from the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACN).
The prosecution subsequently tendered the recovered mobile phone, a Techno android phone; petitions from the schools, a compact disc containing audio visual recording of the defendant’s interview and statement making sessions, a copy of the defendant’s extra-judicial statement, among others.
The court admitted all the documents and items in evidence in the absence of objection from the defence lawyer, Hamza Dantani.
The defendant, who confirmed being familiar with the Techno android phone, however denied being the owner.
While being cross-examined by Dantani, Jego said his organisation got complaints from the schools through petitions.
He said the petitions did not reflect the name of the defendant and that the phone numbers used to send the SMS were provided by the petitioners, who also provided the text messages.
Jego said he would not know if the phone numbers belonged to the defendant, but that the defendant admitted that he was part of those that composed the text messages.
The witness added that Agbo was arrested in possession of the mobile phone recovered from him and that he admitted being part of those behind the text messages.
At the conclusion of the cross examination, Eze sought an adjournment to enable the prosecution bring more witnesses and exhibits, a request Dantani did not object to.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik thereafter adjourned to May 12 for continuation of trial.
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