The ongoing trial of the sitting lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District, Mohammed Ali Ndume, over his alleged romance with the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram terrorist sect, may have assumed a dangerous dimension, considering that the accused person has sworn before a Federal High Court in Abuja that the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, was fully aware of his relationship with the sect.
While challenging the legal competence of the 4-count criminal charge that was entered against him by the Federal Government, Ndume, through a 24-paragraph affidavit he attached in support of his motion seeking to quash the charge, admitted having telephone exchanges with members of the Jammatul Sunnah Walid Jihad though denied furnishing them with classified information that has aided their terrorist operations in the country.
The embattled lawmaker who said the first telephone exchange between him and the sect was on October 4, 2011, insisted 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.
It would be recalled that Ndume was arrested by the States Security Services, SSS, on November 21, after a self-confessed spokesman of the sect, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, fingered him as one of the major sponsors of the sect. He was docked before the high court on December 12, 2011, and subsequently released on bail after he had spent 26-days in detention.
He was specifically accused of violating sections 7(1) (b) and 3(b) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011, by not only disclosing classified information to the terrorist group, but also furnishing them with phone numbers of top government officials, including that of the Attorney General of the Federation.
Though the embattled lawmaker pleaded not guilty to the allegation, the federal government alleged that he had “on or about the 4th day of October, 2011 somewhere between Maiduguri and Abuja, being in possession of the mobile phone number of Ali Sanda Umar Konduga (alias Usman AI- Zawahiri), a terrorist spokesman of the Boko Haram sect which you know to be of material assistance in securing the apprehension of the said Ali Umar Konduga, did fail to disclose same information to a law officer as soon as reasonably practicable and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 7(1)(b) of the Terrorism
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