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Federal High Court in Abuja has heard how alleged terrorists’ negotiator, Tukur Mamu, was offered N50 million by leader of a terrorists group.
An official of Department of State Services stated this while testifying as sixth prosecution witness in Mamu’s trial for terrorism-related offences.
The witness said: “The second voice that played for five minutes is Shugaba’s, who is leader of a terrorist group, appreciating the defendant’s efforts and asked him to remove N50 million for his use from a 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 device during interrogation after he was arrested in Egypt.
Mamu was arrested on September 7, 2022, by Egyptian security officials at Cairo International Airport, on suspicion of financing Boko Haram terrorism activities.
He was alleged to have convinced the terrorists to discuss ransom with families of hostages of the train attack instead of the Chief of Defence Staff Committee set up by Federal Government for his personal financial gain.
He was said to have been nominated by the terrorists that attacked Abuja-Kaduna bound train in March 2022 which took hostages.
Mamu was alleged to have collected ransoms on behalf of Boko Haram terrorists from families, confirmed the amount and facilitated the delivery of same to the terrorists.
Led in evidence 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 his valuables, comprising cash, cars and other items, from his house to a safe location, to avoid detection by security agents.
The sixth prosecution witness added: “The defendant was arrested in Egypt and returned back to Nigeria, where investigators received him.
“A search warrant was duly executed in his property and office in Kaduna, during which cash, in local and foreign currencies; cars and other valuables were recovered.
“In compliance with his directive to Tinja, and the other dependants in the house, some cars and cash were moved out to various locations.”
The witness said investigators later traced and located some items, including about 300,000 US dollars, seven cars, including Toyota Camry (Muscle); Peugeot 5008, Lexus, Mercedes E350 and Hyundai.
Car documents were tendered by prosecution through the witness, which the court admitted in evidence.
The witness added that when the defendant was brought back, he “handed his Samsung tablet and two phones to our exhibit keeper, who sent them to forensic department for forensic analysis.
“The outcome of the analysis, including voice notes between the defendant and terrorists, were part of the content presented to the interrogation team and items recovered from his home.
“He (the defendant) was interviewed, during which content of his phones and other items were presented to him.
“During the interview, the defendant admitted giving instruction to Mubarak to move his valuables from his house. He also admitted communicating with the terrorists, using his voice notes 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.
