A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 7 for judgment in the trial of Kabiru Umar (Kabiru Sokoto), charged with complicity in the 2011 Christmas day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State.
About 40 worshippers died, while several others sustained varied degrees of injury in the incident.
Justice Ademola Adeniyi chose the date for judgment on Monday after parties adopted their final written addresses.
Lead prosecution lawyer, Chioma Onuegbu, urged the court to ignore the defendant’ argument and uphold the evidence and submissions of the prosecution in convicting the accused.
She argued that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the guilt of the accused has been established through his confessional statement; circumstantial evidence and eye witness account.
Onuegbu argued that the voluntary statement of an accused was sufficient to lead to his conviction.
She urged the court to attach weight to the accused’s confessional statement.
Onuegbu told the court that the accused did not deny making the statement, which she said, collaborated the one made by the officials of the State Security Service (SSS).
She said the statement summarised the evidence given in court.
Onuegbu contended that an accused’s confessional statement “plays an important role in the guilt of an accused person.”
She urged the court to discountenance the argument by the accused lawyer and resolve all issues canvassed in favour of the prosecution.
On his part, defence lawyer, Sheriff Okoh, argued that the charges against the accused are not based on evidence and such should be discountenanced.
He stated that the accused was standing trial on allegation that he had the knowledge of the Madalla bombing, an allegation the (accused) had denied.
Okoh contended that before a person could be declared guilty under Section 7 (1) of Terrorism Prevention Act, his actual knowledge of the crime must be proved.
Okoh argued that Boko Haram was not an illegal body until around April this year when the Federal Government proscribed and labelled it so.
He argued that until his client’s arrest, Boko Haram was not an illegal association.
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