Disagreements over how to share the funds received by Islamic extremist groups led to the splitting of the terrorist sect, Boko Haram, a prosecution witness revealed thursday.

The disclosure was made when the suspected mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa's Catholic Church, in Madalla, Niger State, Mr. Kabiru Umar, also known as Kabiru Sokoto, was arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The Islamic sect had broken into splinter groups, one of which is Ansaru, which has also launched a series of violent attacks and took responsibility for the kidnapping and killing of foreign workers in northern Nigeria.

During the proceedings at Sokoto's trial, the court also learnt that Sokoto could indeed speak the English Language contrary to previous claims by the suspect, which had necessitated the use of a Hausa interpreter at the beginning of the trial.

At the resumed sitting, the court was shocked when one of the prosecution witnesses, named XYZ, who adorned a mask for security reasons, told the court that the suspect willingly wrote his statement upon his arrest in very clear and precise English.

After the revelation, the court proceeded to confirm the veracity of the suspect's statement and subsequently excused the court's interpreter who had been interpreting proceedings in the Hausa language to the suspect.

The witness told the court that the statement, which the suspected terrorist volunteered to the investigators, disclosed that he had worked as a medical laboratory assistant at the Sokoto State Specialist Hospital before he joined the Boko Haram group.

The witness also informed the court that Sokoto included in his statement details of funding received by the insurgents from an Islamic group, Musilimi Yaa'maa, based in Algeria and how the funds led to the fragmentation of Boko Haram, following disagreements over the sharing of the money.

The witness also told the court that in the statement of the accused, which formed part of the evidence against him, Sokoto also stated that the dreaded Islamic sect resorted to attacking and stealing from Christians because it was considered not to be a sin.

The witness told the court that Sokoto voluntarily gave the statement in which he stated that he belonged to the Boko Haram Sect and that he was the governor of the sect in Sokoto State.

Prosecuting counsel, Chioma Onuegbu, sought to tender the statement as evidence but the defence counsel, Adamu Ibrahim, objected.

Ibrahim told the court that the statement was not obtained voluntarily and prayed the court to declare a trial within a trial.

In the trial within a trial, prosecution witness 2, who was identified as ABC, informed the court that Sokoto had asked for someone to take his statement while he was being interrogated because he was not in the right state of mind to do so himself.

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