ABUJA  (AFP) – The trial of six suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram sect accused of involvement in bomb blasts which killed 25 people in separate attacks in and around Abuja began on Friday.

In a federal high court the six face a five-count charge of throwing bombs in and around the Nigerian capital between March and July this year.

James Ene Izi, an official of the State Security Service (SSS) said the accused were members of Boko Haram and that they were linked to sect commanger Ibrahim Bashir Mandalla, who remains at large.

“All the accused brought before this court are members of Boko Haram,” Izi told the court, reading from the report of the SSS investigation.

“In one way or the other, they contributed to the bomb attacks in Suleja and some parts of Abuja,” Izi said.

Izi alleged that the suspects were responsible for the spate of bombings in Suleja, 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside Abuja.

The worst of the attacks was on the eve of parliamentary elections in April, when a bomb rocked a local election office, killing 16 people, mainly recent graduates hired as election officials.

They were alleged to have committed acts of terrorism by causing death through detonation of improvised explosive devices.

The SSS official said the suspects were illegally trained in weapon handling in Mandalla village, near Abuja.

The prosecution witness also said the suspects were responsible for a bomb blast that killed three at a church building in Suleja in July and also three policemen at Dakina village in the Federal Capital Territory.

They face life imprisonment if convicted.

Judge Bilikisu Aliyu adjourned the trial until November 24.

The Boko Haram sect has been blamed for scores of shootings and bomb attacks, mostly in Nigeria’s northeast.

The group claimed responsibility for the bombing of UN headquarters in Abuja on August 26 that killed 24 people.