The planned trial of the suspected mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing in 2011 at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State, Kabiru Sokoto, was yesterday aborted following the inability of his counsel to file his defence.

The lawyer blamed the development on his inability to have access to his client at the Kuje Prison as the authorities turned him down. He accordingly requested that his client be returned to the SSS custody where he could have access to him.

His request was granted by the trial judge, Justice Ademola Adeniyi. During his arraignment, the accused person denied any involvement in the bombing that claimed about 44 lives and wounded 75 others.

The lanky leader of the Boko Haram Islamist sect, whose real name is Kabiru Abubakar Dikko, was arraigned by the Federal Government on a two-count charge of terrorism before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

Accompanied by his wife and a baby, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Earlier attempts by government to arraign him in court were stalled following his inability to secure a lawyer to defend himself.

Prosecution counsel, Chioma Onuegbu kick-started the proceedings when she informed the court that she had filed and served a copy of the amended charge on the accused persons together with the proof of evidence case summary, list of witnesses, exhibits, statements of the accused person as well as those of the eight witnesses.

She, therefore, sought the permission of the court for the charge to be read to the hearing of the accused person for him to take his plea.

However, it was a hectic exercise as the alleged kingpin of the Boko Haram Islamist sect told the court that he did not understand English language. Speaking through an interpreter, he maintained his innocence by denying the allegations against him. Following his plea, the prosecution counsel asked the court for a date for trial.

At this stage, counsel to the accused person, Musa Ibrahim moved an oral application for the court to grant him bail but was overruled by the court, which insisted on a formal application.Thereafter, Ibrahim applied that his client be removed from the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) to Kuje Prison.

The court granted the request after the prosecution counsel did not raise objections to it. Specifically, Justice Ademola Adeniyi ordered that Kabiru Sokoto be transferred from the custody of the SSS to Kuje Prison and be allowed unhindered access to his lawyers and family members. The court further gave seven days to the accused person to file and serve his defence papers on the prosecution and adjourned the matter to May 2, 6 and 9, 2013 for full trial.

Kabiru Sokoto only recently escaped from police custody after his initial arrest on January 14, 2012. He was taken into custody after being nabbed but escaped from the police team while being led to his Abuja home for a search.

The development led to the sack of the former Inspector General of Police Mr. Hafiz Ringim and Mallam Zakari Biu, a. former Commissioner of Police in charge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

However, the suspect who was also accused of training over 500 men on how to manufacture and detonate Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, was eventually re-arrested on February 10, 2012, and has remained in the custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, since then.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/madalla-bomb-blast-court-returns-kabiru-sokoto-to-sss-custody/