Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday reserved, Friday, May 10, for ruling on the admissibility of a document tendered as Kabiru Umar’s confessional statement.
Adamu Ibrahim, counsel to Kabiru Umar, AKA Kabiru Sokoto, claimed that the statement was extracted from his client through “torture, coercion, beating and intimidation’’.
Mr. Umar is standing trial for his role in the Christmas Day bombing of the St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger, in 2011. He is said to have had information about the bombing but failed to inform law enforcement agents.
He is further accused of belonging to a terror group, known as Boko Haram, between 2007 and 2012 at Mabira Sokoto in Sokoto State.
The two prosecution witnesses, who gave evidence against the accused in blind fold, said that Mr. Umar had confessed to being privy to the bombing of the Christmas Day bombing in Madalla.
They submitted that the confession was recorded as statements he signed.
The witnesses said the police did not extract the statement from him but that he volunteered items contained in the statement.
The witnesses said that the statement was taken under the supervision of former Police Commissioner Zakari Biu, CSP Pam Augustine, Insp. Anthony Larumo, Cpl Francis Ameh, now dismissed, and Corporal Adakole Samuel in an open space.
“Terrorist suspects in the country are different from other suspects, they have never denied being members of the Boko Haram, so there is no need attempting to extract statement from them.
“I have supervised over 50 terrorist suspects cooling in prisons across the country and none has ever denied membership of the dreaded sect.
“Since Umar was first arrested and re-arrested after his escape, he has never been beaten, tortured, intimidated or promised any assistance in order to get information from him,’’ a witness said.
However, Adamu Ibrahim, counsel to the accused, raised objection on the admissibility of the statement, arguing that it was forced out of his client through torture.
In the light of the objection, Mr. Ibrahim filed an oral application for trial-within-trial to ascertain the veracity of the claim.
The judge immediately granted the application since no objection was raised against it by the prosecutor, Chioma Nweogbu.
At the trial-within-trial, the two prosecution witnesses were re-invited to give evidence on how the statement was obtained.
They reiterated that the accused volunteered the statement and that he confessed that the group got support from the Borno Government.
“The accused further told us that Boko Haram was getting financial support from a sister group in Algeria and that the biased sharing formula used led to the break-up of the group.
“The accused person gave us his mother’s name as Aisha and said other secret and personal things contained in the statement that no one could have extracted through torture,’’ a witness said.
While giving his evidence, the accused said the police arrested him on January14, 2012 and remanded him in a cell.
He said, “at about 5 p.m. of the same day, I was brought out and they asked me whether I have eaten and after that I was taken to a room where a rubber was inserted from my arms to my fingers, which freeze my blood.
“As if that was not enough, some minutes later, I was handcuffed, by this time I had started bleeding and I was left alone till morning.
“Throughout my stay in the police cell, I was not asked to write any statement, neither was any statement written with my consent to sign.
“My lord, the statement before the court is not mine and all that is contained is a figment of the prosecution’s imagination,’’ Mr. Umar said.
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