Chat 212 - News Summary...
- Federal High Court Abuja has fixed Nov 7 for judgement in the criminal trial of the 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church.
- Okoh urged the court to discharge and acquit the accused person of all the counts before the court as they were not based on evidence to support any of the count charge.
- Justice Ademola Adeniyi fixed the date after the defence counsel, Sylvester Okoh adopted his written address.
Chat 212 - Newsmail Report...
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday fixed November 7 for judgement in the criminal trial of the alleged mastermind of the 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, Kabiru Sokoto.
Justice Ademola Adeniyi fixed the date after the defence counsel, Sylvester Okoh adopted his written address.
Okoh had submitted that all the charges leveled against the accused person were not based on evidence and should be discountenanced.
Reminding the court that the accused person had denied the allegations against him, he contended that for a person to be guilty under Section 7 (1) of Terrorism Prevention Act, the actual knowledge must be proved.
Okoh also argued that Boko Haram was not an illegal body until around April-after the arrest of Sokoto-when the Federal Government proscribed it and labelled it so.
He urged the court to discharge and acquit the accused person of all the counts before the court as they were not based on evidence to support any of the count charge.
Opposing the plea, the prosecution counsel, A.C Onuegbu argued that the guilt of the accused person had been proved through his confessional statement, circumstantial evidence and eyewitness account.
According to her, the voluntary statement of an accused person could lead to his conviction since he did not deny making the statement, which collaborate the one made by the State Security Service.
Onuegba, who said that statement was a summary of the evidence given in the court, submitted that the confessional statement of the accused person placed an important role in the guilt of an accused person.
She however urged the court to discountenance all the argument of the accused person and resolve all the issues canvassed in favour of the prosecution.
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