The alleged mastermind of the
Christmas day bomb blast that killed about 44 persons and wounded 75
others at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church at Madalla, Niger State, in
2011, Kabiru Umar, a.k.a Kabiru Sokoto, yesterday, insisted he had no
case to answer.
This came on day the Boko Haram Amnesty Committee said it never met with him during its visit to Kuje Prison last week.
At
his resumed trial before Abuja Division of the Federal High Court,
Sokoto queried the competence of the 2-count terrorism charge preferred
against him by the Federal Government, contending that the government
had failed to establish a prima-facie criminal case capable of
warranting his conviction.
He stated this as government closed its case against him after it had called six witnesses that testified before the high court.
Consequent
upon an application made by Sokoto’s lawyer, Mr Hassan Lukman, Justice
Ademola Adeniyi, adjourned the case till June 7 to enable the accused
person enter his no-case-submission.
Basically, a no case
submission is made when an accused person believes that the prosecution
has failed to prove the ingredients of the offence for which he is
charged or that the evidence adduced in court was such that a judge
cannot rely upon to pass a sentence.
Specifically, the alleged
Boko Haram kingpin urged the court to give him only seven-days to
puncture the terrorism case against him, a request granted.
The court also gave the federal government five days to respond on points of law to whatever the accused person will file.
Besides,
Sokoto, asked the court to furnish him with the entire record of
proceeding, a request that was declined by Justice Adeniyi.
Meanwhile,
the last prosecution witness who testified before the court yesterday,
alleged that Sokoto had confessed that one of the recognized leaders of
the sect, Abubakar Shekau, told him that only members of the sect
initiated into the “Shurah” cadre were allowed to know the ideology
behind the current insurgency in the Northern part of the country.
The
witness told the court that Sokoto had disclosed that whereas members
of the “Shurah” which he belongs to, plan and mastermind attacks, other
lay members were recruited to execute terrorist agenda of the sect.
However,
Sokoto, through his lawyer, faulted the testimony of the masked
witness, maintaining that he used the Hausa word “Anche” in his
statement, a word he said meant “they said.”
He told the court that he was only referring to what he was told by those affiliated to the sect.
The
federal government had alleged that aside the Madalla blast, the
accused person trained over 500 men on how to manufacture and detonate
Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, adding that he had a terrorist
training camp at Abaji, a suburb town in Abuja.
One of the witnesses had earlier narrated before the court how a donation of N40million divided the sect.
According
to the witness, Sokoto had in a statement made on January 14, 2012,
confessed that of the said N40million which he said was received from
another terrorist group in Algeria, he got the sum of N500, 000, being
the recognized governor of Sokoto State in the hierarchy of the group.
He
told the court that the accused person admitted that he used his share
of the money and bought Quran and other Islamic religious books, even as
he allegedly volunteered the names of two members of the sect that
bombed Catholic church at Madalla, Niger State, on Christmas day.
The
witness further told the court that Sokoto gave the names of the two
perpetrators as Bashir Mohammed and Muhktar Kafanchan, noting that the
federal government is currently on the trail of the said culprits.
Besides,
“Mr ABC”, testified that the accused person confessed that it was not
suicide bombers that attacked the church, but that the bombs were
detonated from a car that was parked near the church.
Likewise,
another witness, “Mr DEF”, narrated how Sokoto hid behind a wardrobe on
February 10, 2012, a day he was re-arrested at Sabongida in Taraba
state, few days after he escaped from police custody in Abuja.
The
witness who is an operative of the Department of State Service, DSS,
told the court that upon his arrest, Sokoto was found with a Nokia phone
and six different Sim cards.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram Amnesty
Committee has said it never met with Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged
mastermind of 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church,
Madallah, Niger State, during its visit to Kuje Prison last week.
In
a statement signed by secretary of the Committe in Abuja, the
committee, which is officially called Presidential Committee on Dialogue
and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North (PCDRSCN),
said its attention had been drawn to a front page story of a particular
media report (not Vanguard) which alleged that it met and held
discussions with the suspect.
According to the statement, the committee did not at any time during the visit see Sokoto, let alone have discussions with him.
Agreeing
that its chairman had an interactive session with some members of the
press, the committee said it did not consider Kabiru Sokoto a
sufficiently significant figure in the hierarchy of Ahlul Sunnah Lil
Da’awa Wal JihadN to warrant such a special attention to him.
It
further described the story as false, saying “it may be considered as
deliberate act of mischief or sabotage intended to discredit the work of
the committee.”
The statement read in part: “While, indeed, the
committee did visit the Kuje Prison on Thursday, May 14, 2013, and met
with officials and some of those detained there, at no point did the
committee state that it saw Kabiru Sokoto, let alone hold any discussion
with him during the visit.”
In
a statement signed by the Nigerian Army spokesperson in Adamawa,
Mohammed Nuhu, the army urged all the residents to abide by the curfew.
Special
Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo
Badru, said this on Thursday during a press conference in Ikeja.
In
the said movie, Tonto Dikeh interpreted her role like someone, who is
well grounded in the act she was acting in the film. She acted the role
of a spoilt child, who sleeps with her father and her boyfriend. 
It
was a confirmation of the feelers I got from family and friends that
she is fetish and had been using charms on me. I felt uncomfortable
living under the same roof with her. In view of this development, 
I
sent her a mail asking her to leave Ukraine and go back to Nigeria
since she hadn’t anything concrete doing and yet again she refused. I
sent her another mail threatening to stop paying the rent in Ukraine by
the end of April.
The
drugs include Zeramal-QS, Nkoyo Glucose tablets, Anolox Ampicillin
capsules, paracetamol tablets and gold circle latex condoms.
