A Federal High Court? in Abuja yesterday dismissed the application filed by Senator Mohammed Ndume seeking to quash the four count terrorist charge brought against him by the Federal government.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole while delivering ruling on his application which sought to quash the charge said that the accused has a case to answer as there was no dispute that Ndume had link with at least a member of the Boko Haram, one UmaruKonduga Ali.
Ali is currently serving three years imprisonment for a similar offence.
In refusing to quash the charge, Justice Kolawole said that from the document before the court it was obvious that the accused person was a member of the Presidential Committee on Security for the North East Zone and that ‘It was the committee that provided the accused person the leverage to establish contact or connection with the Boko Haram sect.
He however noted that ‘it is not a good reason for probable defence. It is not a legal basis to quash the charge.’
On the argument by the applicant that the charges was an abuse of court process, the judge held that Ndume was arraigned before the court on December12, 2011, a week after the charge before the Chief Magistrate was withdrawn.
He said that, in any case, even if the charge before the Chief Magistrate were to be alive, the charge before the Federal High Court cannot be said to be an abuse of processes because it has exclusive jurisdiction to handle terrorist charges.
The Judge also disagreed with the Applicant’s argument that the Court lacks jurisdiction because precedent has not been followed. ‘No law that said terrorist group must be proscribed before any of its members can be charged’
Equally, Ndume’s argument that the Attorney General of the Federation and minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke SAN ought not to have signed the charge, being the complaint was discountenanced on the ground that there was no law that the AGF must be neutral while prosecuting criminal matter.
