The mass trials of those arrested for terrorism has resumed on Monday at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
While the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN is prosecuting the defendants, Aliyu Bagudu Abubakar, the Director General of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria represented the first defendants, Hamat Modu.
The Boko Haram suspect numbering 30 are presently taking their plea one after that other before the trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako.
The first suspect, Hamat Modu, 20 years pleaded guilty to the four-count charge slammed against him by the federal government.
Following the guilty plea of the defendant, the prosecution counsel prayed the court to convict him as charged.
Oyedepo tendered the extra-judicial statement of the defendant as well as the investigation report, which the court accepted as exhibit A and B.
In her judgement, Justice Nyako held that, “In view of the guilty plea of the defendant and the investigation report of the prosecution, I hereby found the defendant guilty as charged and convicted him accordingly.
Before the sentencing of the defendant who, pleaded for leniency, his counsel told the court that the four count charges against the defendant bordered on association and not active participation in the activities of the Boko Haram.
The lawyer pleaded with the court for understanding for minimal sentence to enable the convict reintegrate into the society.
Justice Nyako sentenced the defendant to ten years imprisonment at at detention facility designated by the Minister of Interior.
She said the sentencing should commence from the date of the arrest of the defendant, who must undergo the process of de radicalization.
The trial of the terrorism suspects is currently going on simultaneously in three courts of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.
…Details soon
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