BEVERLY HILLS, CA, November 15, (THEWILL) – Mustapha Umar, a member of the terror group Boko Haram, has been convicted on one count of terrorism and sentenced to life in prison by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
Umar, a self confessed member of the group, on April 26, 2012, bombed SOJ Plaza in Kaduna where Thisday, The Sun and The Moment newspapers have their bureaus.
UPDATE:
Self-confessed Boko Haram member, Mustapha Umar, on Friday, got a life jail term with hard labour for his involvement in the April 26, 2012 bombing of SOJ Plaza in Kaduna State occupied by THISDAY, The Moment and The Sun Newspapers.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of a Federal High Court, Abuja handed down the sentence on Umar after finding him guilty of the one-count charge of terrorism.
Plea by his lawyer for the court to temper justice with mercy was rejected by the court as the court stated that the state of mind of the convict when the attack was planned, coordinated and orchestrated reinforced its determination to remove him from the public for life.
Justice Ademola also awarded the sum of N150 million as compensation to the relatives of those who died in the bombing, saying no one’s life was more important than others. Three persons died in the bombing and several others sustained varying degrees of injuries.
Umar was alleged to have driven a white Honda Academy car with registration number AL 306 MKA laden with improvised explosive devices into the premises of SOJ plaza with the intention to detonate the explosives within the premises.
He had pleaded not guilty during his trial but the court relied on the recorded interview which he granted to investigators where he admitted to being a member of Boko Haram.
The court also relied on the testimonies of ten witnesses comprising of police officers who took part in the investigation of the crimes.
The prosecution drew the court’s attention to section 4 (2) of the Terrorism Act and asked the court to consider the deaths recorded at the incident and to sentence the convict to death.
But the court declined that invitation and pointed out that the convict was charged against Section 1 of the Terrorism Prevention Act which provided for a life sentence upon conviction.
The judge also found that the convict demonstrated no remorse for his actions throughout the trial and observed that the souls of those whose deaths were caused by his actions cried out for substantial justice.
Furthermore, the court held that the convict’s reason for attacking THISDAY which he said was because the newspaper was denigrating Prophet Mohammed was untenable.
The judge said that as members of the fourth estate of the realm, nobody should be allowed to muzzle the press, an objective which the terrorist act was calculated to achieve .
The judge said the judgment would be forwarded to the Committee set up by the President on the resolution of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Justice Ademola also praised the Nigeria Police Force for the expertise and professionalism demonstrated in the trial which led to the quality of the prosecution of the matter by the team of lawyers led by Mr. Shuaibu Labaran, a senior state counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The case is the first conviction recorded under the amended Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011.
In the course of the trial, a prosecution witness on Tuesday told the court that Umar wept bitterly over his failure to die in the suicide mission.
The witness, a police detective, said he interrogated Umar after he was arrested in Kaduna and brought to Abuja.
The accused, the detective said, was unhappy because not dying with victims of the attack had denied him the opportunity to make heaven.
The witness was masked, and his name not disclosed, in line with a court order protecting witnesses that testified in terrorism-related trials.
Testifying while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Mr. Simon Labaran, the witness narrated how Umar was handed over to him at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Area 10, Garki, Abuja, after his arrest in Kaduna on April 26, 2012.
“I was serving in Force CID Area 10, Abuja, as a detective in charge of investigation of terrorism cases.
“On April 26, 2012, the accused person was brought from Kaduna and handed over to me for discreet investigation.
“The accused person was involved in the bombing of THISDAY office (in Kaduna).
“He was always crying because the operation he went for failed, he said that he would have been happier if he had died in the operation with people (victims) so that he would be in heaven,” he said.
The witness told the court that the suspect made five statements while he was interrogated.
He said Umar was not tortured before he confessed, adding that he was given medical treatment.
