A Federal High Court in Abuja heard on Monday that international terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda supported members of the proscribed terrorist group Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan (ANSARU) to stage the May 15 attacks on schools in Oriire Local Government, Oyo State.

The attack, the court also heard, was to force the Federal Government to release their leaders who were arrested and being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS). A prosecution witness, identified as ‘BBB ‘, also told the court that upon the kidnapping of students and teachers during the attacks, the terrorists submitted a list containing 30 names of their leaders and members to the Federal Government, who they demanded must be released, or else they would kill the victims.

The witness, a DSS operative, testified on Monday as the second prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of five men, said to be members of Ansaru, and accused of complicity in the Oriire attacks.
The five are Mahmud Muhammad (aka Abu Bara’a, Abbas Mukhtar); Abubakar Abbas (aka Isah Adam, Mallam Mahmuda Al-Nigeri); Abdulrazak Umar (aka Abu Khalifa/Abu Khalid); Yunusa Musa (aka Abu Yunusa Bin Musa); and Shamsu Adamu Sani (aka Abu Itisar).

According to the prosecution, the defendants are from the Okene Local Government Area (LGA), Kogi State; the Daura LGA, Katsina State; and the Suleja LGA, Niger State. Led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Oyedepo Rotimi (SAN), BBB said the operation effected by security agents, leading to the kidnap victims’ rescue, was informed by the FG’s refusal to negotiate with the terrorists and play by their demands.

The witness said he knew the five defendants in the course of his official duties, adding that he particularly knew the first defendant (Muhammad) in Maiduguri as one of the founding fathers of Boko Haram, who once served as the group’s Head of Security and Intelligence.

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