HELLO

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