Court fixes Nov 7 for judgment in Kabiru Sokoto’s case

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, tentatively fixed November 7 for judgment in the trial of Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged mastermind of the 2011 Christmas day bombing in St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State.

The trial judge, Justice Ademola Adeniyi, fixed the date after the defence counsel, S. Okoh, adopted his written address.

Okoh had submitted that all the charges leveled against the accused were not based on evidence and as such should be discountenanced.

He further argued that the accused is standing trial as alleged by the prosecution that he had knowledge of the Madalla  bombing but he (accused) had denied it, adding that before a person will be guilty under Section 7 (1) of  the Terrorism  Prevention Act, the actual knowledge must be proved.

Okoh also argued that  Boko Haram was not an illegal body until around April this year when the Federal Government proscribed and labelled it so.

He submitted that up till the time of Sokoto’s arrest, Boko Haram was not an illegal association and since Nigeria is a secular state where everyone is free to belong to any association, and to believe whatever he wants to, then the accused should not be guilty of belonging to an association.

He urged the court to discharge and acquit the accused of all the counts before the court as they were not based on evidence.

Opposing the submission, the prosecution counsel, A.C Onuegbu, argued that the prosecution had argued its case beyond reasonable doubt, adding that the guilt of the accused had been proved through his confessional statement, circumstantial evidence and eye witness account.

She added that the voluntary statement of an accused person can lead to his conviction.

She also submitted that the court has to attach weight to the confessional statement of the accused as well as look if there is anything outside the confessional statement that can be believed.