THE Federal Government yesterday recorded a major feat in its war against terror as an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court convicted the spokesman of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Ali Sada Umar Konduga, for felony.
The court reached the verdict after Konduga pleaded guilty to all the charges preferred against him.
But Chief Magistrate Oyebola Oyewumi reserved his sentencing because the first accused person, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, pleaded not guilty to the charges of felony preferred against him, causing the trial to go its full circle from December 6, 2011.
Consequently, Oyewumi ordered that the accused be remanded in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS).
The court also ordered that the accused persons be given unhindered access to their lawyers and doctors in view of Ndume’s complaint of facing the challenge of prostate cancer and had not taken his medication since his arrest on Monday night.
The development came as the Senate pledged to remain open over Ndume’s alleged involvement in the sect’s activities.
Earlier during the hearing of the matter, the prosecutor, C. I. Osagie, had told the court that the accused persons conspired to commit felony, breach of official trust, criminal intimidation by anonymously sending test messages to some senior public officials, including the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), contrary to Sections 79, 98 and 398 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
The second accused person (Konduga) who spoke through an interpreter, Mustapha Shehu Ismail, pleaded guilty to the one-count charge and asked the court for leniency, as the offence has already been committed.
He told the court that he had sent test messages to the Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu, Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, Senator Sanusi Daggash, Ambassador Seriki Tafida and the Chairman of the Borno State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice Sabo Adamu.
But Ndume pleaded not guilty to the charge against him. Instead, he prayed the court to grant him access to his lawyers and medication. The court had no trouble granting Ndume’s request.
On the second accused person, Chief Magistrate Oyewumi held “in view of the plea of guilty by the second accused person and having failed to show why he should not be convicted, he is hereby convicted for the offence of criminal intimidation contrary to Section 398 of the CPC.”
In granting the request by the prosecution that the conviction be stayed since investigation was almost completed and that the accused person be remanded in the custody of the SSS, the Magistrate ruled that “the accused are hereby remanded in the custody of the SSS with an unhindered access to their lawyers and doctors while the matter is adjourned to December 6 for hearing.”
The bid by counsel to Ndume, C. I. Nnaemeka, to secure his bail failed as the court insisted that a formal application for bail be filed.
It would be recalled that the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, had disclosed that it has been able to sustain its activities because it has the financial backing of prominent politicians from Borno State.
The acclaimed spokesperson of the group, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, a.k.a. Usman Al-Zawahiri, made the disclosure on Monday when he was paraded before newsmen by the SSS.
The SSS spokesperson, Deputy Director, Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar, who anchored the parade, had earlier in her brief stated that the confession of the suspect had fingered a serving National Assembly member as one of the sponsors of the sect.
Konduga had in his confessional statement disclosed that the group started as a collection of political thugs during the regime of former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, but fell out with the governor when one of their major sponsors who was a commissioner under Sheriff was dropped from the state cabinet and later killed by security operatives in a crackdown on the sect members.
The death of the commissioner, he said, was responsible for the opposition of the group against Sheriff, which culminated in the decision to support any other political party against Sheriff.
The war against Sheriff, he said, was the reason for the escalation of blood-shedding in the state.
He corroborated the claim made by Ogar who told journalists that a former Ambassador, Pinda, became the main financier of the group when it fell out with Sheriff, as the group was hijacked by opponents of Sheriff, and used it to cause crisis in the state while the battle to unseat Sheriff lasted.
The name Usman Al-Zawahiri, Ogar disclosed, was given to Konduga by the late Ambassador to conceal his identity and portray him as an extremist, but Konduga who spoke through an interpreter said he was the one who coined the name himself.
He, however, revealed the name of the ambassador who took over the running of the group after it fell out with Sheriff as Ambassador Pinda.
Pinda, Konduga said, died while on his way to the sect’s hide-out to deliver the sum of N5 million as part-payment of a N10 million running expenses for the group, which was contacted to work for his (Pinda) political party.
According to the SSS, it was after the death of Pinda that the serving senator, who was later identified as Ali Ndume, took over the running of the group’s activities.
Konduga during his parade before newsmen however, refused to state categorically, if Ndume was a financier of the group but admitted that they have a good relationship with him.
He said his text message communication with Ali Ndume was to ask him why he accepted membership of the Federal Government committee on the security situation in the North-East.
According to him, the escalation of the activities of the Boko Haram in Borno State was to stop All Nigeria Peoples Party from winning elections.
He also admitted that the threat text message was sent to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the ground of his relationship with the former governor of Borno State.
He admitted that the text messages were sent to everybody that had a hand in the emergence of ANPP in Borno State and to the Electoral Tribunal.
Also, a threat text message was sent to Daggash, former Minister of Works, for sabotaging the efforts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from winning election in Borno State, AL-Zawahiri said.
The Senate yesterday had a marathon executive session over Ndume’s arrest.
Senate President David Mark, yesterday, at the start of plenary, called for an executive session, which lasted several hours.
The Guardian gathered that the session discussed, in detail, the arrest of Ndume who represents Borno South Senatorial District. It was learnt that several options on how to handle the issue were raised but the Chamber finally decided to allow the security agents do their work.
This was confirmed by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who spoke to journalists at the end of the session.
“Senate is very much aware and has gotten the same information that other Nigerians have gotten about an alleged claim by a member of the Boko Haram sect concerning a member of the Senate and a member of the National Assembly. The Senate wishes to state very clearly that it has always been in the forefront of urging the security agencies to do the necessary job to make Nigeria safe for everyone of us.