A Federal High Court in Abuja has heard how operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) tracked and arrested a terror suspect, John Jude Agbo, who allegedly sent messages threatening to kill students and teachers in some elite schools.
An operative of the DSS, Michael Jego, testified in court as the first prosecution witness. He explained that the agency received petitions from three schools in Abuja in 2024 about threatening text messages sent from different phone numbers.
According to him, the messages warned that students and teachers would be killed and school property destroyed.
Agbo, who was arraigned on March 17, is facing a two-count charge under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (Amendment) Act, 2024.
The DSS said the suspect used multiple GSM numbers to send the threatening SMS to schools including Premier International School, The Regent Secondary School, and Oakland International British School.
The messages allegedly stated that the attacks would be carried out quickly and without warning.
Jego told the court that during investigations, the DSS used technology to trace the suspect to Otukpo, where he was arrested. A Tecno Android phone and a SIM card were recovered from him.
He added that the suspect was brought to Abuja and gave a statement in the presence of a lawyer from the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria.
The prosecution presented several items as evidence, including the recovered phone, petitions from the schools, a compact disc containing video recordings of the suspect’s interview, and his written statement. These were admitted by the court without objection from the defence.
Although the defendant admitted being familiar with the phone, he denied owning it.
During cross-examination, the DSS operative said the petitions did not originally mention the defendant’s name, but the phone numbers and messages were provided by the schools.
He added that the suspect admitted being involved in composing the threatening messages.
After the session, the court adjourned the case to May 12 for continuation of trial before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik.
