The State Security Service on Wednesday told an Abuja
Federal High Court that Senator Aliyu Ndume asked a self-confessed spokesman of
the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Ali Kodunga (a.ka Al-Zawahiri), to call
and threaten the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice,Mohammed Adoke (SAN).
Konduga has since been convicted on
two counts of criminal breach of public trust and intimidation through
anonymous communication. He is currently serving a three-year prison term.
The SSS said it made the discovery
when Ndume’s mobile telephone call logs were analysed during
investigations. The Senator is facing terrorism charges brought against
him by the Federal Government.
On June 14, 2012, a Federal High
Court in Abuja presided by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, ruled that Ndume
must face trial on four counts of terrorism .
The court also dismissed a motion
filed by his counsel, Chief Rickey Tarfa (SAN), seeking the dissolution of the
charges against him. Ndume is accused of having links with Boko Haram and
also being involved in its activities.
When the trial resumed on Wednesday,
a chief investigative officer in the SSS, Mr. James Inneh, told the court that
Ndume gave Adoke’s phone number to Konduga.
According to Inneh, the alleged
threat by Konduga was to force the AGF to influence the outcome of the
election tribunal sitting in Borno State in favour of the Peoples Democratic
Party.
Inneh said , “Konduga, in his
confessional statement told the SSS that Ndume gave him the phone number of the
AGF to threaten him (AGF) that they would make Borno State ungovernable if he
did not ensure that the Borno State Election Petition Tribunal gave judgment in
favour of the PDP.”
The agent admitted that Ndume gave
some materials he obtained from Boko Haram to Vice-President Namadi Sambo and
the Director-General of the SSS, while he served as a member of the
Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North-East.
Inneh said, “We investigated
his claim by using our tradecraft. We did not have any audience with the VP but
we investigated. His (Ndume) phones were sent to experts for analysis and after
the phones were analysed, we did not tell him about our findings.
“He was not there when the analyses
were carried out. Some of the materials we took from his house were
laptops, GSM phones, an international passport and other things.”
Inneh said he could not recall if
Ndume had written a letter to the Inspector-General of Police to ask for
protection.
Justice Kolawole,
however, adjourned the trial to November 1- 5 and December 11, 2012.
Ndume had asked the court to acquit
him of the charges, arguing that the proof of evidence filed by the prosecution
did not link him with the sect.
Ndume said his alleged relationship
with Konduga, which formed the basis of the charges against him, came as a
result of his membership of the presidential committee set up to address the
security challenges in the North-East.
Ndume told the court that before his
appointment as a member of the committee, he had no contact with Konduga or any
other member of the sect.
However, in a counter-affidavit, the
prosecution counsel, Mrs. Olufumilayo Fatunde, had asked the court to hold that
Ndume’s trial must proceed summarily in line with Section 33(2) of the Federal
High Court Act.
Ruling on the matter, the court
maintained that, after studying the charges brought against the Senator, it
found that he had a case to answer.
Kolawole said, “There is a link
between the accused person and the offences listed in counts one to four.
“The mere presence of a probable
defense to a criminal charge is not enough to quash the charge. The fact that
an accused person denied the charges is not enough to quash the charges. There
is a link between the accused person and some members of the Boko Haram.”
Source; Punch
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