Boko Haram Chief Sponsor Sentenced

Justice Saliu Saidu of the Federal High Court sitting in La­gos, yesterday sentenced a man described as financier of Boko Haram sect to 10 years imprison­ment with hard labour. The convict was said to have been the brain behind the international bond that the sect recently estab­lished with some foreign terrorist organisations.

The Boko Haram finan­cier was among four sus­pects – secretly tried before Justice Saliu Saidu by the Department of State Secu­rity (DSS).

Efforts by journalists to get details of the allega­tions against the suspects and other details about the conviction were unsuccess­ful, as no one was willing to divulge the information.

When the suspects were brought into the courtroom under heavy security, all other people in court were ordered out, except the lawyers and court regis­trars.

Last month, Justice Ibra­him Buba, also of the Fed­eral High Court in Lagos, sentenced three Boko Ha­ram members to 25 years in prison each, after find­ing them guilty of belong­ing to the outlawed funda­mentalist group.

The suspects were ar­rested in Lagos on March 21 with explosives and oth­er dangerous items while planning to attack the city.

In the charge against them, the prosecution al­leged that the accused persons committed the of­fences at Plot 5, Road 69, Lekki Phase I Housing Es­tate, and No. 24, Oyegbeni St., Ijora-Oloye, Apapa- Iganmu, Lagos.

Their trial was conduct­ed in camera pursuant to application by the pros­ecuting authority, the La­gos State Government, that there was need to protect the witnesses in the case.

Justice Ibrahim Buba gave his judgment in secret and pronounced the three convicts guilty of the ter­rorism charges.

The 17 suspects initially charged were arraigned before Justice Buba on 18 counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism, illegal possession of firearms, and being members of a pro­scribed organisation.