Court rejects alleged terrorists negotiator Tukur Mamu’s third bail application

A Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected a fresh application for bail filed by detained alleged terrorists negotiator, Tukur Mohammed Mamu.

Justice Mohammed Umar, in a ruling on Wednesday, noted the health complaint made by Mamu and  held that the detaining authority, the Department of State Services (DSS) should not release him, but take him to an appropriate health facility where he would be adequately attended to.

Justice Umar noted that, by the history of the case so far, the prosecution has exhibited diligence in it handling of the case and has exhibited diligence in prosecuting the case.

The judge said one of the reasons for granting bail is where the prosecution is not diligent, noting that since the prosecution in this case is diligent, the application for bail cannot be granted.

He subsequently ordered that the defence lawyer should choose the health facility comfortable to the defendant, to which he should be promptly taken.

He also asked the DSS to allow the defendant access to members of his family.

The ruling on Wednesday is the third time the court will reject his application for bail since his was arraigned on March 21, 2023 by the Federal Government on a 10-count charge bordering on terrorism financing, among others.

Mamu was arrested on September 7, 2022 by Egyptian security officials at the Cairo International Airport, on reasonable suspicion of financing Boko Haram terrorism activities.

 He was alleged to have convinced the terrorists to discuss ransom payments with individual families of the hostages of the train attack instead of the Chief of Defense Staff Committee set up by the Federal Government for his personal financial gain.

He was said to have been nominated by the terrorists that attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound train sometime in March 2022 which took scores of persons hostage.

Mamu was alleged to have collected ransoms on behalf of the Boko Haram terrorists from families of hostages, confirmed the amount and facilitated the delivery of same to the terrorists.

After the ruling, a witness called by the prosecution, an Investigator with the DSS, whose identity was shielded, told the court  how the committee set up by the Federal Government to negotiate the release of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack hostages in 2022 was allegedly betrayed by Mr Tukur Mamu.

The DSS operative, who was led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, David Kaswe, said: “In 2022, March 28 to be precise, the Kaduna-bound train was attacked enroute to Kaduna.

“Several persons were killed and others were injured and over 60 people were taken into the bush as hostages.

“Thereafter, a committee which was already in existence, handling a similar cases of abduction, with government support was mandated to also explore measures for the release of the hostages.

“The committee was supervised by then Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor (rtd.).

“The committee established communication with the terrorists on the possibility of securing the release of the kidnapped hostages.

“And the terrorists made some demands which include the release of members of their families who were in custody of government detention facilities in exchange for the release of the hostages,” he said.

The witness said while that was in progress, the terrorists consulted with some of the hostages in their custody and recommended names of persons who they felt could negotiate on their behalf with the government.

“Names were suggested and the suggested names were forwarded to the people suggested, seeking their willingness to accept in the negotiation on behalf of the terrorist group

“All those that were contacted declined to take the offer except the defendant who offered himself to negotiate on behalf of the terrorists group with the government.

“Thereafter, as earlier stated, window of communication was already established between the government recognised committee and the terrorists.

“So when the defendant came on board, communication was taken place on multiple fronts at the same time, that is apart from the committee.”

According to him, after sometime, the defendant (Mamu) expressed his dissatisfaction with the arragement where communication was taking place on multiple fronts.

“The defendant, having been accepted to negotiate on their behalf with government, suggested or advised the terrorists to appoint a single interlocutor or negotiator,” he said.

The witness said Mamu then became the only negotiator between the terror group and the government committee.

“So when the defendant emerged as sole interlocutor between the terrorists group and government, attempts by the committee members to reach out to the terrorists became a challenge because they do not want to reach out to the committee anymore except through the defendant.

“Subsequently to continue with the government’s assignment, the committee now continues to recognise the defendant,” he said.

When the lawyer asked the witness to tell the court at what point Mamu became a subject of arrest, he said: “So the committee decided to work with defendant for the release of the hostages since he had become the sole negotiator.

“And based on the agreement on prisoners’ swap, it was agreed that the women, the children and the sick should be prioritised in the prisoners’ swap.”

According to him, the agreement was that from the intelligence available to the committee, it was estimated that about 30 or 32 hostages were to be released for about eight members of the families of the terrorists.

“So being the spokesperson between the terrorists and government side, the defendant probably communicated a different thing to the terrorists because on the scheduled day, the committee mobilised vehicles to convey about 30 to 32 hostages but on reaching there, only 11 hostages were brought out.

“The committee felt betrayed and felt that the defendant undermined the committee’s effort by taking decision unilaterally and the committee wrote an interim report to the government and a copy which was also avail to us (DSS).

“The report highlighted the role of the defendant in undermining the committee’s assignment for his own personal gains,” he alleged.

The witness said the committee was constraint to work with Mamu for further negotiation with the terrorists, being the sole negotiator.

“My lord, the terrorists, through the defendants, now demanded for 1 billion Euro for the release of the remaining hostages.

“There was stalemate for sometime as to what next to do in view of the circumstance,” he said.

The investigator said Mamu then suggested to the terrorists to explore negotiation with individual families of the hostages, “since according to him, the government was not serious and care about the lives of the hostages.”

He said the terrorists accepted the advice and directed Mamu to notify the family members of the hostages.

“So the defendant reached out to family members of the hostages for those that could raise the ransom demanded by terrorists to secure the release of their loved ones.

“The idea to collect ransom on behalf of the hostages was also communicated to the committee but the committee rejected the offer.

“So members of the family members of the hostages who were able to raised various sums of money as ransom did so and brought it to the defendant.

“The defendant confirmed the amount, packaged it and coordinated the transportation of the ransom to the terrorists at agreed location.

He said N100 million was paid by the hostages whose family members could pay, while Mamu allegedly determined the payment of ransom for those who could not raised up to the N100 million, by talking to the terrorists group.

“As time goes on, those that could not meet up paid what they could afford,” he said.

He said at that time , Mamu granted an interview which was published in his newspaper –  Desert Herald, between August 16 and Aug. 22, 2022.

“It is a weekly publication on pages 19 and 25 where he said that apart from the 11 hostages that were released, he single-handedly facilitated the release of others without the input of government or the committee.

“So the defendant collected various sums of money from all the family members of hostages and transported them to the terrorists,” he said.

The witness said Mamu also included some packages which were wrapped together with the ransom he delivered to the terror group.

“He was running errands for them apart from ransom collection.

“The investigation revealed that during one of the errands, the defendant wrapped some rings with a (written) note which he folded (we don’t know the content of the writing) and he delivered it to the terrorists at the point of exchange.”

At that point, Kaswe applied to tender the documents, which application was not opposed by Mamu’s lawyer, Johnson Usman, (SAN). Usman said he would raise objection at the address stage, if necessary.

Justice Umar admitted the interim report by the CDS Action Committee, the generated photocopies of the photos of the newspaper publication, two photos of the rings and stapled note, in addition with the certificate of compliance as evidence and marked them as exhibits.

Earlier, the fifth prosecution witness (an exhibit keeper with DSS) also testified and tendered some  exhibits.

The witness said: “With regards to this case, there were exhibits that were brought to us according to our record, the exhibit came on September 9, 2022.

“And another one came due to the subsequent investigation conducted by the service in respect to the case.

*My job mainly is to collect, store and record exhibits,” he said.

The witness listed the exhibits to include $300, 000 US dollars; N25, 690, 500; “one thousand eight hundred and forty Egyptian pounce; one thousand seven hundred India  rupee; one hundred and fifteen UAE currency; two Kata Rial of Qatar currency and 16 coins of different currencies.”

Others tendered and admitted as exhibits were Pump Action, called Delta Magnum; cartridges of the Pump Action in two packs.

The witnesses said one pack contained 25 rounds of cartridges and the other contained 22 rounds of cartridges.

He also tendered a license for the Pump Action, including two phones; Oppo and Samsung Phones with Samsung Tablet.

The witness also tendered seven cars allegedly belonging to Mamu.

“We have One Toyota Camry, metallic gold colour; we have Honda CRV, metallic blue colour; we have Mercedes Benz E350, white colour; we have Lexus 250, white colour; we have Hyundai Equs; a Peugeot 508, black color, we have another Peugeot 5008, maroon colour;” he said.

The witness said the cars, which have not been serviced for a long time, were in the DSS custody.

The judge admitted them in evidence and marked them accordingly.

Further hearing in the case has been adjourned till November 25.