By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Abuja
Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, admitted fresh sets of
evidence, showing that Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, allegedly made
seventy-three contacts with the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
The evidence was tendered before the court by a forensic expert with
the States Security Service, SSS, Mr Aliyu Usman, who testified against
the lawmaker yesterday as the third prosecution witness.
The witness, had in his examination-in-chief, maintained that the
contacts took place between October 3 and November 3, 2011, adding that
most of the communication was between Ndume and the self confessed
spokesman of the Boko Haram sect, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga.
t would be recalled that the high court had on October 24, admitted
into evidence, two phones comprising of Nokia E-7 and Nokia 27100, which
the SSS confiscated from both Senator Ndume and Konduga, shortly after
they were arrested.
Trial Justice Kolawole marked the two phones as exhibits P5 and P5 (a).
Meanwhile, Konduga who willingly submitted himself to the security
agency had since been convicted by an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court.
However, Ndume who is answering to a 4-count criminal charge, had in
his statements before the high court, maintained that the reason the
sect approached him was as a result of his being a member of the
Presidential Committee that was inaugurated on August 2, 2011, with a
view to addressing the security challenges in the North Eastern part of
the nation. He said the first telephone exchange between him and the
sect was on October 4, 2011, two months into the Committee’s work.
In a 24 paragraph affidavit he deposed before the court, Ndume said
after the sect approached him, “he promptly informed one Usman, who
represented the SSS before the Presidential Committee of his contact
with the said Jammatul Sunnah Walid Jihad (otherwise known as‘Boko
Haram’ sect) and also other members of the committee.
“He also informed the Director of State Security Service of his
interaction with the said “Boko Haram” sect and forwarded a copy of the
DVD he obtained from the sect to the Director of SSS for review.
“The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His
Excellency Namadi Sambo, is also aware that he was in contact with the
Jammatul Sunnah Walid Jihad (otherwise known as ‘Boko Haram’).”
Nevertheless, in his testimony, Aliyu, who told the court that he is a
member of Digital Forensic examiners in a sister agency from the United
States of America and a certified member of advance forensic examiners
in Israel, said he was the person that personally extracted all the
calls, and text messages that were exchanged between Ndume and the Boko
Haram spokesman.
He said the information was stored in three different Call Data
Record (CDR) and Mobile Phone Exploitation (MPE) record from the Nokia
E7.
Aliyu told the court that after the data were analyzed and confirmed
as a genuine communication channel between the sect and Ndume who is
currently representing Borno South in the Senate, he handed the
extracted information alongside the IMEI of the phones to the chairman
of the investigative panel that was set-up by the SSS to look into the
alleged conviviality between the lawmaker and the terrorist
organization.
Moves by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Thompson Olatigbe, to tender the
three exhibits as evidence before the court met stiff opposition from
the defence counsel Chief Ricky Tarfa, SAN, who relied on the provision
of section 85 and 86 of the Evidence Act to contend that it constituted a
“Secondary Evidence.”
Tarfa had argued that the exhibit were computer generated, saying its
authenticity could not be easily ascertained, a submission that was
countered by the prosecution who urged the court to go ahead and admit
the CD’s as part of the proof of evidence in the matter.
In his ruling yesterday, Justice Kolawole, said he found no merit in
Tarfa’s objections, noting that it would be in the interest of justice
to admit the exhibits into evidence.
Marking the CD’s as exhibit P8, P8(a) and (b) yesterday, the trial
judge, however stressed that its contents will be ascertained in the
cause of the trial, adding that contrary to argument of the defence
counsel that they are in the category of public documents, the judge
maintained that in-line with section 43 (1) (a-b) of the 1999
constitution, the call logs are not such that any network provider can
reveal to individuals except in relation to an investigation of criminal
allegation.
The judge said it would have been different assuming the witness was
not the maker of the evidence, even as he adjourned the case till
February 7 and 11, 2013, to enable the defence counsel to cross-examine
the witness.
Specifically, Ndume is being prosecuted by the Federal Government on
allegation that he furnished the Boko Haram sect with classified
information that aided their terrorist operations in the country.
He was arrested by the State Security Service, SSS, on November 21,
2011 and docked before the high court on December 12, sequel to his
indictment by Konduga, who fingered him as one of their major sponsors.
According to the federal government, the offence he committed was
contrary to section 7(1) (b) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 and
punishable under Section 7(1) of the same Act.
Though the security agency said its investigations revealed that it
was Ndume that submitted phone numbers of top government officials,
including that of the Attorney General of the Federation, to the Boko
Haram sect, however, the lawmaker who spent 26 days in detention before
he was eventually granted bail by the court, has since denied the
allegation, describing it as baseless.[Vanguard]
