Nyanya Blast: Suspect Arraigned And Remanded

Six persons suspected to have masterminded and executed the April 14th, 2014 bloody bomb blasts at a well populated bus terminal in Nyanya, a suburb within Nigeria's federal capital city, Abuja, have been further remanded at the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, by a federal court despite stiff opposition by the suspects' lawyers.


 The accused persons ; Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, Akhmad Rufai Abubakar (aka Abu Ibrahim/Maitirare), Mohammed Sani Ishaq, Ya’u Saidu (aka Kofar Rama), Anas Isah, Adamu Yusuf and Nasiru Abubakar, were formally arraigned on an eight count charge before the court on Friday after series of postponements.


They all denied any involvement in the dastardly act and pleaded not guilty.

They were accused by Nigerian government of conspiracy, engaging in act of terrorism, belonging to Boko Haram, an outlawed group and refusal to disclose to security agencies, information that would have help prevented act of terrorism.


The suspected kingpin of the alleged terrorists, Ogwuche was specifically  accused of rendering supports to a terrorist group by giving money at different times and places in Abuja to the widows of members of the terrorist organization known as Boko Haram. He was also accused, alongside Abubakar (aka Dr Tsiga) to have carried out surveillance and identification of potential targets of terrorist attack.


Their remand at DSS facilities followed an application by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, DPPF, Mr.  Mohammed Saidu Diri, who is prosecuting the case. 


 He relied on the provision of Section 27(1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act (TPA) 2013 (as amended) and contended that the application was informed by the recent increase in cases of prison breaks in the country.


The defence team led by Mr. Ahmed Raji, a senior advocate of Nigeria, profusely kicked against the application and pleaded with the court to remand the accused persons in prison custody pending the conclusion of trial.  He added that the court would be unfair to the accused person, should it allow their detention in the custody of the agency involved in their  prosecution noting that it was an indictment on the state that it could not provide adequate security in the prisons.


The trial judge, Justice A R Mohammed however upheld Diri’s argument having observed that Section 27(1) of the TPA allows the detention or remand of accused persons in the custody of law enforcement agencies once the prosecution makes an application to that effect.

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