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800 Boko Haram suspects set for trial
By Modupe Shodeinde
No fewer than 800 Boko Haram suspects have been prepared for prosecution which will start as soon as the ongoing judiciary workers’ strike is over, an official has said.
PremiumTimes reports that the 800 are among about 1,000 terrorism suspects whose case files have been analysed by the prosecutors handling the Federal Ministry of Justice’s “complex cases”.
According to a Deputy Director at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja, Chioma Onuegbu, who heads the Complex Casework Group (CCG) in the ministry’s Department of Public Prosecutions, the suspects are currently being held in the military detention facilities in Maiduguri, Borno State.
She said of the about 1,000 case files that were reviewed, 800 of them have prima facie evidence to proceed to trial, while 170 have been recommended for release due to lack of evidence.
“Out of the 1000 files, after our vetting and legal advice, we found that over 800 of them had prima facie evidence to proceed to prosecution and charges have long been drafted in respect of those 800. 280 of those cases have also been filed at the Federal High Court and the charges
served on the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACON) who is defending the suspected terrorist,” she said.
The rest of the cases found to have prima facie evidence are to be filed at the Federal High Court when the courts resume from the ongoing judiciary workers’ strike that is now about seven weeks old.
Ms Onuegbu added, “Out of the said 1000 case files, 170 were recommended for release for lack of evidence to prosecute them. In preparation to move to Maiduguri with the judges for the trial, the LACON was also served with the 280 files to enable them proceed to Maiduguri and confer with their client (the suspected terrorist) before the commencement of trials.”
The number of suspects being prepared for trial is a far cry from thousands of Boko Haram suspects that are being held in the military detention facilities in Maiduguri and Kainji, Niger State, Premium Times reports.
