POLICE REINSTATE OFFICERS ACQUITTED OF KILLING BOKO HARAM

The Police Service Commission (PSC) has reinstated four police officers who were acquitted of extrajudicial killing of late Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf.

The late leader, who was later succeeded by Abubakar Shekau, was arrested in Maiduguri after the Nigerian Army crushed the 2009 Boko Haram uprising.

He was interrogated by soldiers and handed over to the Borno State Police Commissioner at a ceremony at a military cantonment on July 30.

However, it emerged the following day that he had been shot dead while still in police custody.

The killing caused outrage across the country which led to the arrest and trial of the senior police officers.

Those charged with his murder were two Assistant commissioners of police, John Abang and M. A. Akeera, Chief Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ahmadu and Assistant Superintendent of Police Madu Buba. Also charged along with them was Sergeant Adamu Gado.

Daily Trust gathered that the officers were placed on suspension while their trial lasted.

But in December 2015, a Federal High Court in Abuja acquitted the five men of charges.

Yesterday, spokesman of the PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, told Daily Trust the officers had been reinstated.

“I can confirm that those officers have been reinstated into the police,” he said in a phone interview.

He said they were reinstated after the Commission received a memo from the Inspector General of Police asking for their reinstatement which was concluded in 2017.

It was learnt that once they were acquitted in court and the government did not appeal the judgment, they were free to return to their duties.
It was further gathered that after their reinstatement they have also been promoted to their next rank.

What the court said
The officers were also accused of participating in the shooting of Yusuf’s father-in-law Baba Fugu Mohammed, and an alleged financier of his sect, Buji Foi.
In December 2015 a Federal High Court in Abuja upheld their no-case submission over Yusuf’s murder.

The trial Judge Evoh Chukwu (now late) ruled that there was no evidence from all the six prosecution witnesses linking any of the suspects to the commission of a terrorist act, with which they were charged for the killing of Mohammed Yusuf.

The judge said even the investigating police officer that testified to the prosecution did not visit the scene of the alleged crime in Maiduguri, Borno State but relied on hearsay to charge the suspects for committing a terrorist act.

“None of the witnesses also testified to the effect that any of the defendants killed Mohammed Yusuf or that any of them was responsible for the death of Mohammed Yusuf,” he said.

The court consequently discharged the defendants as the prosecution could not establish a prima facie case against any of them to warrant them defending themselves any further on charges of terrorism and culpable homicide.
The offence was said to be contrary to section 516 of the Criminal Code Act Cap C38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and punishable under section 15 (1)(2) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act 2004. 

The trial of the five officers stalled initially after their arraignment on July 11, 2011 before Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court in Abuja, who was later transferred from Abuja. 

The prosecution of the officers suffered another setback in 2014 when the court ordered trial-within-trial after the defence objected to the admissibility of the statement of CSP Ahmadu. 

The defence also objected to the admissibility of the statement of Corporal Linus Bukar, who was indicted but disappeared. 

The defence also objected to video evidence sought to be tendered by the police, arguing that the police witness, Mohammed Yakubu of the Force Special Intelligence Unit (SIU) cannot tender the video footage of the shooting incident in Maiduguri because he was not the original maker of the video.

However, Yakubu had told the court that the police obtained the video from the Al-Jazeera TV network and sent it to the Nigeria Film Corporation, Jos for authentication.

Under cross examination, prosecution witness, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) in Maiduguri then, Col. Benjamin Ahanetu testified how he arrested and handed Mohammed Yusuf to the police alive. But he could not affirm whether the officers before the court were involved in his killing.
Also, the post-mortem did not explain the type of pellet that felled Mohammed Yusuf, neither did the police present a ballistic report on the type of ammunition involved in the shooting linking the accused police officers.