• Boko Haram financier bags 10 years imprisonment

Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court sitting in La­gos, yesterday sen­tenced a man described as financier of Boko Haram sect to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour. The convict was said to have been the brain behind the international bond that the sect recently established with some foreign terrorist organisations.

The Boko Haram financier was among four suspects secretly tried before Justice Saliu Saidu by the Department of State Security (DSS).

Efforts by journalists to get details of the allega­tions against the suspects and other details about the conviction were unsuccessful, as no one was willing to divulge the information.

When the suspects were brought into the courtroom under heavy security, all other people in court were ordered out, except the lawyers and court registrars.

Last month, Justice Ibrahim Buba, also of the Federal High Court in Lagos, sentenced three Boko Ha­ram members to 25 years in prison each, after finding them guilty of belonging to the outlawed fundamentalist group.

The suspects were arrested in Lagos on March 21 with explosives and oth­er dangerous items while planning to attack the city.

In the charge against them, the prosecution al­leged that the accused persons committed the of­fences at Plot 5, Road 69, Lekki Phase I Housing Estate, and No. 24, Oyegbeni St., Ijora-Oloye, Apapa- Iganmu, Lagos.

Their trial was conducted in camera pursuant to application by the prosecuting authority, the Lagos State Government, that there was need to protect the witnesses in the case.

Justice Ibrahim Buba gave his judgment in secret and pronounced the three convicts guilty of the ter­rorism charges.

The 17 suspects initially charged were arraigned before Justice Buba on 18 counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism, illegal possession of firearms, and being members of a proscribed organisation.




Source: Sun