BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI, ABUJA
An aide to the slain leader of the Boko Haram sect, Yusuf Mohammed, and eighteen other alleged terrorists accused of complicity in the United Nations House bombing on August 26, was yesterday, arraigned before a Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja.

The accused persons who were marshalled into the court premises located at Wuse Zone 6, by heavily armed mobile policemen around 12:25pm yesterday, were subsequently remanded in prison custody by presiding Magistrate Azubike Okeagu, who insisted that his court was bereft of the requisite jurisdiction to try the matter.

Magistrate Okeagu who noted that the allegations levelled against the accused persons were outside the jurisdiction of the lower court, said he could only take cognisance of the charge and order the prosecution to take the case to a higher court, though he adjourned the substantive suit till November 3, for further mention.

Nineteen suspected members of the Ahlan Sunnah Lid Da'waati wal Jihad Yaanaa brothers, also known as Boko Haram arraingned at the Chief Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

While adjourning the case shortly after the accused persons who were docked in seven batches, had listened to the First Information Report, FIR, containing the charges preferred against them by the Nigerian Police yesterday, Magistrate Okeagu held that “the accused persons are to be remanded in prison custody pending when they will be arraigned before the appropriate court.”

Though the Nigerian Police Force, which is prosecuting the matter on behalf of the Federal Government, yesterday, told the court that it was four of the alleged Boko Haram members, Salisu Mohammed, Musa Mukaila, Danzumi Haruna and Abdulsalam Adamu, that sent a suicide bomber in a CRV SPV with Reg. No. AV 38 NSR loaded with explosives, which it said was used in bombing the UN House on August 26, it further alleged that the other suspects participated in the bombing of police stations in Maiduguri, Gombe and Yobe states, as well as, bombed the Sani Abacha Barracks in Abuja and an Army Barracks in Bauchi.

The four alleged UN bombers were charged with committing “mischief and culpable homicide punishable with death contrary to sections 327 and 221 of the penal code law.”

Police specifically alleged that, “on the 26-8-11 at about 1025hrs, you Salisu Mohammed, Musa Mukaila, Danzumi Haruna and Abdulsalam Adamu (M) of Kano state, conspired amongst yourselves and sent a suicide bomber in a CRV SUV with Reg. No. AV 38 NSR loaded with explosives who forcefully drove into the United Nations House in Abuja and detonated the explosives killing 25 persons while others sustained injuries. You are thereby suspected to have committed the above offences.”

Meantime, the prosecution equally told the court yesterday that one of the other accused persons, Aminu Hussien, joined the late leader of the Boko Haram sect, Yusuf, to perpetuate acts of terrorism in some northern states of the federation, adding that they raided police stations in Maiduguri, Gombe and Bauchi, killed officers on duty and carted away their AK 47 Rifles.

Police maintained that four other members of the sect, Mallam Bashir, Alhaji Salisu Wudic, Mallam Abubakar and Mallam Zubairu Mohamed, who allegedly participated in the ‘arms looting spree’, alongside their slain leader, are currently at large.

Other suspected members of the Boko Haram sect who were docked in court yesterday were, Mishanu Mohammed, Bilyaminu Bashir Baba Gana, Yusuf Abdullahi, Suleiman Ahmed, Abubakar Mohammed, Bashiru Mohammed, Shehu Ladan, Raboji Garba, Ahmadu Yusuf Diya, Bello Yusuf, Umar Mohammed Jundugu and Suleiman Mohammed.

Police alleged that two of the accused persons, Gana and Abdullahi, who were charged together in a separate charge, who it said were originally from Kano and Yola, respectively, were however arrested in a Boko Haram hideout in Kaduna state.

Another accused person, Suleiman Mohammed who hails from Borno state, was charged after “he was arrested in possession of a list of all the police personnel in police stations in Bauchi state. The prosecuting counsel, Superintendent Chijioke Okezie, who lamented that whereas 25 persons lost their lives and several others injured as a result of the UN House Bombing, also noted that so many innocent citizens and police men on duty were allegedly murdered in cold blood by the accused persons.

Though none of the accused persons entered plea to any of the charges read to them through a Hausa interpreter yesterday, they were escorted to prison in two white Toyota Hiace Buses, marked NPF 725C and NPF 724C, at exactly 2:45pm by over 30 armed mobile policemen.

Some of the alleged Boko Haram members who kept smiling while inside the dock yesterday, recited their Muslim Rosary throughout the duration of yesterday’s proceeding. All the accused persons declined to listen to the English version of the charges, even as they replied “bar-turenchi” when the Magistrate asked if they could understand English language.