Boko Haram: Sen. Ndume discharged and acquitted

The immediate past Majority Leader of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has been discharged and acquitted over allegations bothering on terrorism brought against him by the Federal Government.
The four count terrorism charge was preferred against him in November 2011.
Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial District in the Senate, was set free by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja on the ground that no prima facie case was established against him.
Kolawole held that the prosecution failed to link the defendant with the alleged heinous crime of hoarding information on terrorism activities and sponsoring the Boko Haram sect.
Kolawole in striking out all the four count charges, faulted the prosecution for failing to call eminent personalities to give evidence in respect of the charge against the defendant.
Specifically, the Judge said that while the defendant admitted having contact with the Boko Haram sect as a result of his appointment as a member of the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North Eastern Part of the country, and also admitted volunteering information to the Director of the Department of State Services and former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, in the National Assembly on Boko Haram operations, the prosecution never considered it necessary to invite the named people to give evidence in the trial.
The Judge said that the failure of the prosecution to invite those personalities to give evidence was fatal to the case as it hindered the prosecution from discharging the burden of proof.
Kolawole said the evidence of the Information Technology expert, Peter Olayiwola, did not in any way help the prosecution because the content of the phone one Boko Haram spokesperson, Aliyu Umar Konduga, used to communicate with the defendant only revealed text messages on greetings when analysed by the expert.
He said none of the witnesses called by the prosecution gave valuable evidence upon which the defendant could have been linked with the crime.
The Judge further said that it is a settled law that where doubts arise in a criminal trial, such doubts must be resolved in favour of the defendant.
Kolawole said: “What is more, the defendant in this matter admitted having contact with the Boko Haram sect but that he did so as a result of his appointment as a member of the Presidential Committee on Security challenges in the North Eastern part of the country.
“In the same vein, the defendant in the three different statements he made to the DSS upon his arrest made it clear that he volunteered the information on his contact with the terrorism group to the director of the State Security Service in the National Assembly and also to the Vice President for their information.
“It is worrisome that despite the fact that the defendant mentioned names of those he volunteered information to, the prosecution never considered it necessary to call any of the named people to confirm the claim of the defendant.
“This, to me, left a big gap in the case of the prosecution.”
Justice Kolawole therefore struck out the four count charges and as well discharged Ndume from the alleged crime.
The Judge also ordered that the traveling passport the defendant submitted to the Deputy Director Litigation of the Court should be forthwith released to him.
The Federal Government had in 2011 arraigned Ndume on a four count criminal charge of hoarding information in respect of his contact with the Boko Haram sect and for also allegedly sponsoring terrorism act in the North Eastern part of the country.
However, at the close of the prosecution’s case, Ndume, through his counsel, Ricky Tarfa (SAN), on June 6, 2017 made a no case submission and prayed the court to set him free from the criminal charges against him on the ground that he was not in anyway linked with the crime.