ABUJA — Apprehended king-pin of the Boko Haram sect in Niger State, Ahmed Hassan Ezimakor, yesterday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that the sect would not relent in its terrorist activities until it is satisfied that the death of its former leader, Mohammed Yusuf, is dully avenged.
The suspect, who appeared in court as a prosecution witness in the trial of six other members of the sect, maintained that though their ex-leader, Yusuf, before his death in 2009, taught them against the use of violence as a means of driving home their demand for the entrenchment of the Sharia law in the Northern part of the country, however, the group resorted to bombing following the gruesome murder of their leader in 2009.
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 identifying the six accused persons, Shuaibu Abubakar, Salisu Ahmed, Umar Babagana, Mohammed Ali, Musa Adam and Umar Ibrahim, as staunch believers in the ideology that Boko (Western Education) is Haram (Evil), the witness, said they were trained in an uncompleted building at Madalla market in Niger State by one Mallam Bashir Madalla on how to use several kinds of weapons including AK-47.
He stressed that their tutor specifically mandated them to avenge the death of their sect members who were killed in Bauchi, Borno and Yobe states.
A second witness, Mohammed Dalhat Zimbo, who was a miner in Azara town in Nasarawa State before he joined the sect, narrated before the court how he procured the detonators that were subsequently used in bombing the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the eve of the presidential election, and the All Christian Fellowship Center, both in Suleja, Niger State, saying he had no prior knowledge that it would be used for that purpose.
He particularly fingered the 1st accused person, Shuaibu Abubakar, as the person he handed both the detonators and cortex wires that were used by the sect in setting-off the bombs.
He said: “The first time I asked Shuaibu to tell me what the materials were used for, he told me it was meant for some work their boss was doing in Kano. The next time I asked, he told me he would tell me at a later date. The last time I asked, he told me I should learn not to talk too much in the midst of people. I didn’t ask him again.”
Further hearing on the matter was adjourned till today.
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