- …court heard audio conversations between defendant, terrorists’ leaders
A Federal High Court in Abuja heard on Tuesday how alleged terrorists’ negotiator, Tukur Mohammed Mamu was offered N50million by the leader of a terrorists group for his efforts.
An official of the Department of State Services (DSS) stated this while testifying as the six prosecution witness in Mamu’s trial for terrorism related offences.
The witness said, “The second voice that played for five minutes is that of Shugaba, who is the leader of a terrorist group, who was appreciating the defendant’s efforts and asked him to remove N50m for his personal use from a particular ransom amount he was to deliver to them (the terrorists).”
The DSS official identified Shugaba’s voice among others audio conversations, he said were extracted from Mamu’s mobile telephones during interrogation after he was arrested in Egypt and brought back to Nigeria.
Mamu was arrested on September 7, 2022 by Egyptian security officials at the Cairo International Airport, on reasonable suspicion of financing Boko Haram terrorism activities.
He was alleged to have convinced the terrorists to discuss ransom payments with individual families of the hostages of the train attack instead of the Chief of Defense Staff Committee set up by the Federal Government for his personal financial gain.
He was said to have been nominated by the terrorists that attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound train sometime in March 2022 which took scores of persons hostage.
Mamu was alleged to have collected ransoms on behalf of the Boko Haram terrorists from families of hostages, confirmed the amount and facilitated the delivery of same to the terrorists.
Led in evidence on Tuesday by prosecuting lawyer, David Kaswe, the DSS official told the court that, after Mamu was brought back from Egypt, he submitted his Samsung tablet and two phones to DSS’ officials.
The witness, who said he was part of those who investigated the case, told the court that when the defendant was intercepted in Egypt, he put a call to his in-law, identified as Mubarak Tinja and directed him to move out all his valuables, comprising of cash, cars and other items of values, from his house to a safe location, to avoid detection by security agents.
The sixth prosecution witness added: “The defendant was subsequently arrested in Egypt and returned back to Nigeria, where a team of investigators were on ground to receive him.
“A duly endorsed search warrant was duly executed in his property and office in Kaduna, during which cash, in both local and foreign currencies; vehicles and other valuables were recovered.
“In compliance with his directive to his in law, Mubarak Tinja, and the other dependants in the house, some cars and cash were moved out of the house to various locations.”
The witness said investigators later traced and located some of the items, including about 300,000 US dollars, about seven cars, including Toyota Camry (Muscle); Peugeot 5008, Lexus, Mercedes E350 and a Hyundai car.
Vehicle documents relating to the cars were later tendered by the prosecution through the witness, which the court admitted in evidence.
The witness added that when the defendant was brought back to the country, he “handed his Samsung tablet and two of his phones to our exhibit keeper, who sent them to our forensic department for forensic analysis.
“The outcome of the forensic analysis, included the voice note of the conversation between the defendant and the terrorists, were part of the content that were presented to the interrogation team and the items recovered from his home.
“He (the defendant) was subsequently interviewed, during which the content of his phones and other items were presented to him.
“During the interview, the defendant admitted giving instruction to Mubarak to move his variables from his house when. He also admitted communicating with the terrorists, using his voice notes, which were extracted from his two phones and Samsung tablet,” the witness said.
The sixth prosecution witness added that the defendant also admitted owning a pump action gun, which was recovered from his house, which he claimed was duly licensed.
The witness told the court that investigators later discovered that the licence expired in December 2021, nine months before he was arrested.
“In one of the voice notes extracted from the defendant’s phone, the terrorists requested him to teach them how to develop a website and the defendant promised to get back to them in that regard,” the witness said.
The DSS official said about 98 percent of the conversation on the voice notes are in Housa language, some of which were translated to English language because they were too many. The witness said he did the transcription.
Kaswe then applied to render the recorded voice notes stored compact disk plates and the flash drive, which the court admitted, following which about six of the recorded conversations were played in court.
When asked to identify the owners of the voices in the conversations, the witness said: “The last two voices are those of Baba Adamu, who is the spokesperson of the terrorists group.
“The first voice note was the defendant, where he was fixing a date for the delivery of ransom.
The second was …that played for 5 minutes is that of Shugaba, who is the leader of terrorist group, who was appreciating the defendant efforts and asked him to take/ remove N50m for his personal use from a particular ransome amount to be sent to them.
“The last note was Baba Adamu, asking the defendant to help them procure public address system, like speakers, for their preaching activities and the defendants assured that he would look into their requests.
“Adamu also requested that the defendant teach them how to create a website for their activities.”
The witness added that in the course of investigation, two victims volunteered written statements in which they recounted their experiences.
The DSS official said the victims, a male and female, were no longer available, because they expressed their unwillingness to attend court to testify because of fear and trauma.
The court admitted the statements of the victims, one was written in English by the female victim, while the other written in Hausa by the male victim was translated into English.
The court admitted in evidence eight statements made to investigators by the defendants and video recordings of the statements writing sessions.
Kaswe subsequently informed the court that he intends to bring a formal application for the court to visit where the items recovered from Mamu’s house and office are kept.
Further hearing in the case resumes at 11am on Wednesday.
