Court discharges, acquits Sen Ndume of terrorism charge

The federal high court in Abuja on Tuesday discharged and acquitted the former majority leader of the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (Borno South Senatorial District) of four count terrorism charge filed against him by the federal government in November 2011.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole struck out the four count charge while ruling on an application filed by Ndume on “no case submission”. The judge said: ” I have not be able to find any evidence in support of the counts”to warrant the court to ask the defendant to enter his defence.

Kolawole said that he carefully read the evidence of the prosecution witnesses but found that the prosecution evidences were unable to establish any prima facie case against the defendant.

The prosecution,Justice Kolawole further ruled, failed to prove beyond doubt that the defendant committed the alleged heinous crime of hoarding information on terrorim activities and sponsoring the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

The judge said the prosecution also left gap in its evidence and “failed to call eminent personalities the Director General of the Department of State Security Service and the Vice President to give evidence in respect of the charge against the defendant.”

Especially, as the defendant had stated in his statement that as a member of the Presidential Committee on the resolution of the crisis in North East , he had contact with Boko Haram sect as a result of his appointment as a result of appointment.

He (Ndume) also stated that he had passed the information in his possession to the then Vice President Namadi Sambo and DG SSS. According to the judge ” doubt must be resolved in favour of the defendant.

The Judge said that the failure of the prosecution to invite those personalities to give evidence was fatal to the case as it hindered the prosecution from discharging the burden of proof.

He also blamed the prosecution failure to call Aliyu Umar Konduga the then spokesman of Boko Haram who is currently serving jail term as witness, at least as proof that Ndume hoarded information.

He said the evidence of the Information Technology (IT), expert. Mr Peter Olayiwola did not, in any way help the prosecution because the content of the phone of one Boko Haram spokesperson, Aliyu Umar Konduga used to communicate with the defendant only revealed text messages on greetings.

He said none of the witnesses called by the prosecution gave valuable evidence upon which the defendant could have been linked with the crime.

“What is more, the defendant in this matter admitted having contact with the Boko Haram sect but that he did so as a result of his appointment as a member of the Presidential Committee on Security challenges in the North Eastern part of the country.

“In the same vein, the defendant in the three different statements he made to the DSS upon his arrest made it clear that he volunteered the information on his contact with the terrorism group to the director of the State Security Service in the National Assembly and also to the Vice President for their information.

“It is worrisome that despite the fact that the defendant mentioned names of those he volunteered information to, the prosecution never considered it necessary to call any of the named people to confirm the claim of the defendant, this to me left a big gap in the case of the prosecution”, he added.

“I hereby strike out the four count charges and discharge the defendant. I also acquit him of the charges,” he ruled.

The Judge also ordered that the International passport and diplomatically passports of the defendant he deposited with the Deputy Director Litigation of the Court should be released to him immediately.