Court sets Sen Ndume free of terrorism charges

JUSTICE Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday discharged the immediate past majority leader in the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume of the four count terrorism charges preferred against him by the Federal Government in November 2011.

Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial District in the Senate was set free by the court on the ground that no prima facie case was established against him by the Federal Government.

In his ruling on the no case submission argued by Rickey Tarfa (SAN) on behalf of Ndume, Justice Kolawole held that the prosecution failed to link the defendant with the alleged crime of hoarding information on terrorism activities and sponsoring the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

While striking out all the four count charges against Ndume, Kolawole faulted the prosecution for failing to call personalities to give evidence in respect of the charge preferred against the defendant.

The Judge specifically said that while the defendant admitted having contact with the Boko Haram sect as a result of his appointment as a member of the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North Eastern Part of the country and also admitted volunteering information to the Director of the State Security Service (SSS) in the National Assembly and former Vice President, Namadi Sambo   on Boko Haram operations, the prosecution never consider it necessary to invite the named people to give evidence in the trial.

He said 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.

Justice Kolawole further said that from the totality of the evidence of the witnesses, the prosecution failed to give ingredients of the charges that would have warranted the Senator to be compelled by the court to enter his defence in the charge.

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 the Boko Haram spokesperson, Aliyu Umar Konduga used to communicate with the defendant only revealed text messages on greetings when analysed by the expert.

He said none of the witnesses called by the prosecution gave valuable evidence upon which the defendant could have been linked with the crime and added that, it is a settled law that where doubts arise in a criminal trial, such doubts must be resolved in favour of the defendant.

“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.

Justice Kolawole therefore struck out the four count charges against Senator Ndume and discharged him of the alleged crime filed against him by the Federal Government.

The Judge also ordered that the travelling document of the defendant submitted to the Deputy Director, Litigation of the Court should be forthwith released to him.

The Federal Government had, in 2011 arraigned Ndume on a four count charge of hoarding information in respect of his contact with the Boko Haram sect and for also allegedly sponsoring terrorism act in the North Eastern part of the country.

However, at the close of the prosecution’s case, Ndume, through his counsel, Ricky Tarfa (SAN) on June 6, 2017 made a no case submission and prayed the court to set him free of the criminal charges against him on the ground that he was not in any way linked with the crime.