Terrorism: Ogwuche was deported from the UK for membership of terrorist organisation - FG tells court

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, heard that the suspected arrow-head of the

Nyanya bomb blast which claimed 75 lives and maimed several others, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, had a history of affiliation with foreign terror groups and was deported to Nigeria by the British Government in 2011 over membership of a banned terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom.

A prosecution witness and staff of the Department of State Service, DSS, (names withheld) made the disclosure yesterday, at the commencement of the much-awaited trial of six suspected masterminds of the blast.

Ogwuche who was arrested in Sudan three months after the bomb blast incident and extradited to Nigeria to face trial, however, kicked against the evidence on his deportation from the UK in 2011, saying it had no relevance to the terrorism trial he is presently facing in Nigeria.

He said even if the evidence was relevant, he urged the court to discountenance it since proper foundation was not laid before the evidence was volunteered to the court.

His lead counsel, Mr Ahmed Raji (SAN), said that the court could only admit such evidence if the witness had produced in court, a copy of the deportation order where the reason for his deportation from UK was clearly stated.

All other accused persons in the case yesterday spoke in unison and urged the court to reject the evidence.

The trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, upheld Ogwuche’s argument, saying the witness having not stated that he was armed with the deportation order, could not orally give secondary evidence from the document (primary evidence) which was not before the court.

Yesterday’s proceedings, however, was a major progress in the trial of the accused persons who have been detained for almost one year without trial.

National Mirror reports that men suspected to be members of Boko Haram, had on April 14, 2014, struck in Nyanya by detonating multiple Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, at a highly populated bus station, killing 75 people, leaving several others injured.

In the course of investigating the bomb blast, men of the DSS arrested six persons at different locations including Jabi in Abuja, Kaduna, Katsina and Sudan.

The accused persons are; Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, Ahmed Abubakar, Mohammed Ishaq, Ya’u Saidu (alias Kofar Rama); Anas Isa, Adamu Yusuf and Nasir Abubakar.

All the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.