The Department of State Security Service (SSS) yesterday alleged that
the embattled senator, Mohammed Aliyu Ndume, had admitted to having
links with the radical Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnati Lidda’awati Wal Jihad,
otherwise known as Boko Haram.
SSS said it made the shocking discovery when Ndume’s mobile telephone
call logs were analysed during investigations. The Senator is currently
facing terrorism charges levelled against him by the Federal
Government.
An officer of SSS, James Ene Izi, a prosecution witness in the
ongoing trial of the senator representing Borno South senatorial
district, disclosed that Ndume admitted in a voluntary statement made to
the service of having telephone interactions with the jailed former
spokesperson of the sect, Ali Konduga.
Izi said , “Konduga, in his confessional statement told the SSS that
Ndume gave him the phone number of the AGF to threaten him (AGF) that
they would make Borno State ungovernable if he did not ensure that the
Borno State Election Petition Tribunal gave judgment in favour of the
PDP.”
The officer added that when the senator and Konduga were made to face
each other, Ndume denied that he knows the suspected Boko Haram sect,
though they had been communicating on phone for sometime now.
Izi also said the confession was further confirmed, as the phone number of Konduga was found on Ndume’s mobile contact.
Led in evidence-in-chief by prosecution counsel, Thompson Olatigbe,
the witness further said “in the process of investigating Konduga, he
mentioned the name of the the accused, one Saidu Pindar who is now
deceased and some of the politicians that have influenced the Boko Haram
activities in Maiduguri.
“Upon this, we invited the accused formally for interrogation and
made voluntary confessional statement, where he admitted that he has
been having link with the sect.”
After taking the evidence, the trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, later adjourned till December 1.
