Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Salihu Othman Isah, who disclosed this on Sunday, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, said the suspects would be arraigned in court on October 9.
The AGF spokesman said the Federal Government had concluded 13 cases involving the Boko Haram suspects, secured five convictions and a total of 33 cases were going on at various Federal High Court divisions across the country.
According to the statement, 116 charges filed in Kainji were still awaiting trial and 220 detainees had been recommended for release and deradicalisation programme for want of evidence.
It also added that 1670 detainees were profiled at the Kainji detention facility awaiting judicial proceedings and deradicalisation programme and that 651 detainees who were remanded at the Federal High Court, Maiduguri, had been transferred from Giwa Barracks to Maiduguri Prisons.
Isah highlighted some of the challenges being faced in the prosecution to include poorly investigated case files due to pressure at the peak of conflict in the theatre, over-reliance on confession based evidence and lack of forensic evidence.
Other challenges faced by the prosecution included absence of cooperation between investigators and prosecutors at pre-investigation stages, poor logistical facilities to transport defendants from detention facility to court for trial, scarcity of skilled/trained forensic personnel to handle investigation of complex cases, inadequate security for counsel handling terrorism cases and the conversion of military intelligence to admissible evidence.
The AGF had approved a list of prosecutors to handle the cases and the Legal Aid Council had equally released a list of defence counsels to stand in for the detainees/defendants.
The statement said four judges had been deputied by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to handle the trial of the Boko Haram suspects and the prosecution would start with the over 1,600 cases at Kainji and dispose of them expeditiously.
The Office of the National Security Adviser as the coordinator of terrorism matters is expected to assist the court by providing the relevant detainees access to deradicalisation programmes where necessary.
The statement issued on Sunday by the media aide to the AGF followed the report of the on-the-spot assessment of the facilities and other incidentals preparatory to the commencement of trial of the suspected Boko Haram terrorists detained in a military detention facility located in Wawa Barracks, Kainji, New Bussa, Niger State, following successes recorded by the Nigeria Army and other security agencies in the fight against terrorism in the country.
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so this gov is telling us that book haram are mere suspect kai kai anyway na aboki or da uwa ,, this news couild have come from lai but now we smell a rat pls if the gov want set them free the should stop telling the world lies,
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