Kabiru Sokoto
Trial of suspected mastermind of the December 2011 bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Mr. Kabiru Umar, also known as Kabiru Sokoto resumed before a federal high court sitting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja Thursday, with the disclosure that the group received funding from an Algerian group known as Musilimi Jaa’maa.
The court, which had been conducting the trial through an interpreter due to the suspected terrorist’s claim that he does not understand the English language, was shocked when one of the prosecution’s witnesses, named XYZ and wearing mask for security purposes, told the court that the suspect willingly wrote his statement upon his arrest in very clear and precise English.
Following this disclosure, the court confirmed its veracity from the suspect and subsequently excused the court’s interpreter who had been interpreting proceedings into Hausa language to the suspect.
The witness told the court that the statement which the suspected terrorist volunteered to the investigators disclosed that he worked as a medical laboratory assistant at the Sokoto state Specialist Hospital before he joined the Boko Haram insurgent group.
He also informed the court that Kabiru Sokoto included details of funding received by the insurgents from an Islamic group, Musilimi Jaa’maa, based in Algeria and how the fund brought about the splitting of the Boko Haram sect following disagreements over the sharing of the fund.
P.M.News google check of the alleged Algerian group brought out a blank. Perhaps Sokoto did not know the group Boko Haram was dealing with. International reports had linked the Boko Haram with the Al-Qaeda active in Algeria and the entire Maghreb.
The witness also told the court that the statement of the accused, which is part of the evidence against him which the prosecutor is relying upon, that Kabiru also stated that the dreaded Islamic sect resorted to attacking and stealing from Christians, an act is said not to be considered as a sin.
Mr. Sokoto, who had earlier failed in truncating his trial, was arraigned on a three count 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.
Source: PM News
