Nigeria has commenced trial of over 6,600 people who were accused of being members of the Islamic Boko Haram group operating in the North-Eastern part of the country.

The trials are being held in secret by civilian court judges at a military facility in north-central Kainji town, BCC reports stated.

Rights activists say they are concerned about the lack of transparency in what have been described as the biggest terrorism trial in Nigeria’s history.

20,000 people have been estimated to have been killed in Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency and Only nine people have been convicted so far of being involved in the unrest.

Ministry of Justice told some correspondent that Four judges have started trials at the military centre in Kainji, Abuja.

Up to 1,670 people will be tried in the coming weeks with a further 5,000 people after that, our reporter says.
More than 1,600 suspects are being held at the centre, where many have spent years.

In a report in 2015, Amnesty International said that the military had arbitrarily detained about 20,000 people as part of its campaign to end the insurgency.

One man who was held by security forces for nearly three years before being released without charge, said that his family had thought he was dead.

Barrister Alhassan Muhammad, who represented suspects in Nigeria’s first trial of Boko Haram militants beginning in 2009, says these trials could be very slow starting with the simple fact that each and every defendant’s name must be read out as the court session opens.

Islamist militants who surrender voluntarily are to be offered amnesty by Nigeria’s government, which is also running a deradicalisation programme for those deemed eligible......... Full details here>>>http://newsafriq.com/2017/10/6600-boko-haram-suspects-face-trial-nigeria-kainji-town/




Source: http://newsafriq.com/

There was a country?

too bad