A suspected terrorist, Asmau Omar, and three others told the Federal High Court, Ibadan, on Thursday that their purported confessional statements were obtained by duress.
They stated this during a trial within a trial, after the defence counsel, Mr. Seun Agunloye, had opposed the admissibility of the extrajudicial statements tendered by the prosecution against his clients.
Omar was arraigned alongside three officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for alleged illegal arms dealing and terrorism in 2023.
Other defendants are Olamide Okesola, Adeleke Adewale, and Emmanuel Olatunji.
The quartet were arraigned by the Department of State Service (DSS) on a 15-count amended charge of conspiracy, terrorism, unlawful arms dealing, and aiding and abetting terrorism.
Omar, who spoke through a Hausa language interpreter, said the DSS operatives investigating the matter threatened to kill her if she refused to cooperate and write the confessional statement that she participated in the crime.
She said: “In the video clips that were played in February in the court, the DSS gave me a bottle of Fanta drink, but I was not the one who drank it.
“On the day they put me in the cell, they removed my dress and I had to sleep with only my short underwear.
“Then, they started beating me, because I did not say what they wanted me to say.
“They beat me further and told me that they would kill me if I didn’t cooperate with them.
“For not complying with them, they chained my legs and hung me.
