Mustapha Umar, the Boko Haram member who was jailed for life for bombing a plaza housing the offices of some newspapers in Kaduna in April 2012, has appealed his conviction.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of an Abuja Federal High Court had on November 15, 2013, sentenced Umar to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of a one-count terrorism charge filed against him by the Federal Government.
The judge ordered that Umar should serve the sentence with hard labour.
However, in a notice of appeal filed before the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on February 11 by his lawyer, Nureni Sulyman, Umar is hoping to set aside his conviction.
The convict argued that the trial judge erred when he held that the prosecution proved the case against him beyond reasonable doubt.
The Boko Haram member insisted that the evidence provided by all the prosecution witnesses were contradictory and unrelaible to warrant his conviction.
Umar also argued that the judge was wrong to have convicted him on the strength of evidence provided by faceless and unidentified witnesses who wore masks while testifying.
The witnesses had to wear masks after the court granted the Federal Government’s wish to protect security agents involved in the campaign against terror in the country.
In the same vein, Umar also contended that he was denied fair trial because the proceedings were conducted in secret and under the watch of “armed and fierce looking men of the Nigeria Police Force.”
Moreover, he claimed that his witnesses were unable to come to the court because of the alleged secret nature of the trial, as well as the restriction of movement by the police and the State Security Service.
Claiming that the trial judge did not subject his testimony to holistic evaluation, Umar asked the appellate court to set aside his conviction and discharge and acquit him.
The judge found that the Boko Haram member carried out the attack with a white Honda Academy car with registration No. AL 306 MKA, which was laden with improvised explosives, including 12 camp gas cylinders which were collectively wired to the steering of the vehicle.
Three persons lost their lives in the bomb attack in the premises of SOJ Plaza, located at R9, Kontagora Road, by Ahmadu Bello Way, Kaduna, which is occupied by Thisday Newspaper, The Moment Newspaper and The Sun Newspaper.
Although Umar had said that the white Honda Academy belonged to him, the prosecution witnesses had informed the court that the number plate on the vehicle belonged to a different car, whose owner was killed when it was snatched at gunpoint.
Besides the testimony of the witnesses, the prosecution’s major evidence against Umar was the video recording of an interview in which he admitted the charge, shortly after his arrest.
In the said video, which was tendered and played in court, a relaxed Umar was seen owning up to the crime, and explaining his motive for carrying out the bomb attack, which was largely to avenge an alleged insult on Prophet Mohammed by Thisday Newspaper.
But after the video had been tendered and played in court, Umar, who admitted that he was the person in the video, recanted his confession, claiming that he confessed under duress.
Denying the charge, he claimed that he was an innocent bystander at the premises of SOJ Plaza, having come there to sell perfumes on the day of the attack.
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