FG has no case against us —Suleja bombers

Six suspected Boko Haram members accused of carrying out multiple bombings and killings in parts of the Federal Capital Territory and Suleja, Niger State in 2011, on Wednesday told a Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday that the Federal Government had no case against them.

The six suspects — Shuaibu Abubakar, Salisu Ahmed, Umar Babagana-Umar, Mohammed Ali, Musa Adam and Umar Ibrahim — are facing a five counts bordering on sundry acts of terrorism.

The State Security Service maintained that its investigations revealed that the accused persons participated in various terror attacks between March and July, 2011.

However, at the continuation of the trial on Wednesday, counsel for the suspected Boko Haram members, Nuraini Suleiman and Kevin Emeka Okoro, while adopting their written addresses in an application for a ‘no-case submission,’ argued that the “prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused persons.”

Suleiman insisted that no evidence was placed before the court to link the accused persons to the alleged offences.

He maintained that the evidence presented by the prosecution against the accused persons was an hearsay.

“This is in-admissible in law,” Suleiman added.

But the prosecuting counsel, Mr.  Thompson Olatigbe, argued that the Federal Government had succeeded in establishing a prima facie case against the accused persons.

Olatigbe added that none of the evidence tendered by the prosecution was discredited during cross examination.

He insisted that all of the evidence placed before the court were reliable enough for a safe conviction of the accused persons.

Olatigbe therefore urged the court to rule in favour of the prosecution and call on the accused persons to enter their defense.

The presiding judge, Justice Bilikisu Aliyu, thereafter, fixed February 11, 2013, to rule on the no-case submission.

It will be recalled that, on January 9, 2013, the last prosecution witness, Mr. Olaoye Obafemi Kehinde, an SSS exhibit keeper, tendered a black Honda Civic car, with number plate AG94MNG, Borno, as exhibit before the court.

The said Honda Civic was the vehicle in which some of the suspects were travelling when they were arrested at an army checkpoint at Gummel Junction at Kachia, Kaduna, on July 27, 2011.

The prosecution alleged that the suspects were carrying explosives, and materials used in manufacturing improvised explosive devices, including cortex wires and industrial powder, in the vehicle, when they were arrested.