Violating Anti-Terror Bill, Nigeria Appeal Court Gives Boko Haram Convicts 25 Years

NewsRescue

In clear violation of Nigeria’s anti-terror bill as amended in 2013, the Appeal court has confirmed a minor sentence of 25 years for convicted Boko Haram terrorists. Cameroun, Kenya and other African nations have been killing their radical terrorists without mercy. Sunnews reports:

THE Court of Appeal in Lagos, at the weekend, af­firmed the judgment of a Federal High Court in the state convicting and sen­tencing three Boko Ha­ram members to 25 years imprisonment each.

The Appeal Court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Y. B. Nimpar, re­jected the appeal filed by the convicts and upheld the judgment of the fed­eral court.

Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos had, on September 30, 2014, handed down the verdict after the La­gos State Government, through the Ministry of Justice, successfully pros­ecuted the terrorists be­fore the court.

The state government had filed charges against four accused persons for conspiracy to commit a felony to wit: acts of ter­rorism, concealing in­formation about acts of terrorism and being in possession of prohibited firearms and ammuni­tion contrary to various sections of the Terror­ism Prevention (Amend­ment) Act, 2013 and the Firearms Act, Cap F.28 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Out of the four persons charged, three were sen­tenced to 25 years im­prisonment each, while the fourth accused was discharged and acquit­ted.

Those convicted and sentenced were Ali Mo­hammed Modu, Adamu Ali Karumi and Ibrahim Usman Ali.

Dissatisfied with the verdict, the convicts through their lawyer had approached the Appeal Court in Lagos asking that the verdict be up­turned on the grounds that they were charged under inapplicable laws, and that the 25-year-jail term was excessive.

One of the convicts, Ibrahim Usman Ali, had specifically argued that he was inadvertently convicted and sentenced for a count with which he was not charged.

While the Court of Ap­peal agreed that one of the convicts was wrongly convicted under a count with which he was not charged, the court, how­ever, affirmed the judg­ment of Justice Buba which convicted and sen­tenced the three terror­ists to 25 years imprison­ment each.