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Terrorism Suspect Fails To Stop Trial

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Nnamdi Felix / Abuja

Suspected mastermind of the 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic church in Madala, Niger state, Mr. Kabiru Umar, also known as Kabiru Sokoto, on Monday at a federal high court siting in Abuja failed in his bid to truncate his trial.

In an application brought on his behalf by his lawyer, Mr. Ibrahim Aliyu, the suspected terrorist challenged the jurisdiction of the court on his trial noting the facts and constituent elements of the charge against him did not take place in Abuja and that he ought not to be tried before the federal high court in Abuja.

Kabiru further contended that the right venue for his trial ought to be in Sokoto or Niger state where he allegedly committed the acts of terrorism and not in Abuja. He also challenged the competence of the three counts brought against him noting that there was no prima facie evidence in the proof of evidence which links him to the alleged crimes and urged the court to discharge the charge and allow him to go.

The prosecutor, Ms. Chioma Onuegwu vehemently opposed the application which she considered as laughable. She argued that the federal high court has the entire country as its jurisdiction. He contended that the federal high court Act empowers the court to sit in any part of the country as well as empower the Chief Judge to assign any case to any of the judges of the court at any of the court’s divisions.

Kabiru Sokoto:fails to challenge jurisdiction

Kabiru Sokoto:fails to challenge jurisdiction

She also contested Kabiru’s lawyer’s reliance on the Ibori case in his submissions to buttress the position of the law on location of an alleged crime and argued that the Ibori case relates to money laundering while the instant case is that of terrorism which is a treasonable felony. She urged the court to exercise its powers under the Terrorism Prevention by dismissing Kabiru’s application.

The presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in his ruling, relied on the provisions of the Terrorism Prevention Act which empowers the federal high court to sit anywhere within the country to hear and determine cases arising from terrorist acts irrespective of the location where the alleged crime took place in Nigeria, and dismissed the suspected terrorist’s application.

No sooner was the application denied, Kabiru’s lawyer moved a pending application for his bail. He pointed out to the court that the nation’s constitution guarantees his client bail pending his trial and urged the court to exercise its discretion in the suspected terrorist’s favour by grantingg him bail.

Again, Ms. Chioma Onuegwu opposed the application. She reminded the court that Kabiru had earlier escaped from pilice custody on their way to search his house at Abaji before his re arrest at Taraba state on W0th February, 2012 by operatives of the SSS and urged the court to deny the suspect bail.

According to the prosecutor, “releasing him on bail will jeopardize the security of the entire nation and moreover, the charges against him are not ordinarily bailable”

Justice Adeniyi thereafter adjourned to 9th May to rule on the bail application and further remanded the suspect to SSS custody.

Mr. Sokoto was arraigned on a three counts charge by Nigeria’s secret police, the SSS, wherein he was alleged to have facilitated the commission of a terrorist act by planting and encouraging his boys who are said to be at large, at Mabira Sokoto in Sokoto state, with the intention to bomb the Police Headquarters in the state between 2007 and 2012. The offence is said to be contrary to section 15(2) of the Economic anf Financial Crimes Commission Act, 2004.

He was also alleged to have been in possession of information about the bombing of 4t. Theresa’s Catholic Church on the 25th of December, 2011, but failed to disclose it to law enforcement officers within a reasonable time to forestall the incident and there by committed an offence contrary to section 7 (1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act 2013 and punishable under section 33 (1) of the same Act

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.

The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.

Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.

Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.

Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.

Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.

In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.

Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.

However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.

Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria

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COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container

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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The market women, said to be  from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.

Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.

A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.

Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that  smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.

 

Sourced From: Vanguard News

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Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

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Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole

The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.

Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.

He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid  in January 2020.

‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.

She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.

He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police  Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.

Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.

He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’

He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.

Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.

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Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

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President Buhari and the Service Chiefs in a meeting. (File photo)

Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend. 

He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart. 

Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.

The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad  problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”

The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad,  saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts.  This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose. 

Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them. 

Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter. 

“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said. 

 

Sourced From: Tribune

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