A State Security Service investigator, on Tuesday, told the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court that Tukur Mamu was offered a N50 million share by Shugaba, the leader of the terrorist group that attacked the Abuja-Kaduna-bound train in 2022.
The SSS operative, who testified as the sixth prosecution witness in the terrorism trial of Mr Mamu, the alleged terrorists’ negotiator, told Justice Mohammed Umar, while being led in evidence by the SSS lawyer, David Kaswe.
The witness, who gave his testimony behind a witness screen for security reasons, said the group also asked Mr Mamu to teach them how to open a website for their terrorist activities.
He stated this while interpreting four voice notes played in the courtroom containing the defendant’s telephone interactions with the terrorists who held the abducted train passengers hostage. The audio recordings were extracted from Mamu’s mobile telephones during interrogation after he was arrested in Egypt and brought back to Nigeria.
“The first voice note that played was for the defendant (Mr Mamu) fixing a date for delivery of ransom. The second voice note that played for five minutes was the voice of Shugaba, the leader of the terrorist group. In the voice note, he was appreciating the defendant’s effort and asked him to remove N50 million for his personal use from a particular tranche of ransom sent to them.
“The last voice note that played, Baba Adamu, who is their spokesperson, was heard requesting the defendant to help them procure speakers and public address system for their preaching activities and the defendant responded that he was going to look into their request. They also requested that the defendant teach them how to open website for their activities,” the witness said.
Mr Mamu 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 Defence Staff Committee set up by the federal government for his personal financial gain. Mr Mamu was allegedly nominated by the terrorists who attacked the train sometime in March 2022, where scores of passengers were held hostage.
Mr Mamu was alleged to have collected ransoms on behalf of a terror group from families of hostages, confirmed the amount and facilitated the delivery of the same to them.
The witness, while being led in evidence on Tuesday by Mr Kaswe, told the court that after Mr Mamu was repatriated from Egypt, he submitted his Samsung tablet and two phones to SSS officials. The witness said he was one of those who investigated the case.
He told the court that when the defendant was intercepted in Egypt, he made a call to his in-law, identified as Mubarak Tinja and directed him to move out all his valuables, comprising cash, cars and other items of value, from his house to a safe location, to avoid detection by security agents.
“The defendant was subsequently arrested in Egypt and returned back to Nigeria, where a team of investigators were on ground to receive him. A duly endorsed search warrant was duly executed in his property and office in Kaduna, during which cash, in both local and foreign currencies, vehicles and other valuables were recovered.
“In compliance with his directive to his in-law, Mubarak Tinja, and the other dependants in the house, some cars and cash were moved out of the house to various locations,” he said.
He said investigators later traced and located some of the items, including about $300,000, and about seven cars, including a Toyota Camry (Muscle), a Peugeot 5008, a Lexus, a Mercedes E350, and a Hyundai. Vehicle documents relating to the cars were later tendered by the prosecution through the witness, which the court admitted in evidence.
The witness added that when the defendant was repatriated, he “handed his Samsung tablet and two of his phones to our exhibit keeper, who sent them to our forensic department for forensic analysis”.
“The outcome of the forensic analysis, included the voice notes of the conversation between the defendant and the terrorists, were part of the content that were presented to the interrogation team and the items recovered from his home. He (the defendant) was subsequently interviewed, during which the content of his phones and other items were presented to him.
“During the interview, the defendant admitted giving instruction to Mubarak to move his variables from his house. He also admitted communicating with the terrorists, using his voice notes, which were extracted from his two phones and Samsung tablet,” the witness said.
He added that the defendant also admitted owning a pump-action gun, which was recovered from his house, which he claimed was duly licensed. The witness, however, told the court that investigators later discovered that the licence expired in December 2021, nine months before he was arrested. The SSS operative said about 98 per cent of the conversation on the voice notes was in Hausa, and he translated some of it into English because there were too many.
Mr Kaswe then applied to tender the recorded voice notes stored on compact disk plates and flash drive, which the court admitted, after Mr Mamu’s counsel, Johnson Usman, reserved his objection until the final address. The recorded conversations were played in the courtroom.
The witness added that during the investigation, two victims volunteered written statements recounting their experiences. He said one of the statements was written in English and the other in Hausa.
He, however, said that the victims, a male and female, were no longer available, because they expressed their unwillingness to attend court to testify because of fear and trauma.
The court admitted the victims’ statements in evidence and marked them as exhibits, as Mr Usman did not oppose them. The court also admitted in evidence eight statements made by Mr Mamu to investigators, as well as video recordings of the statement-taking sessions.
Mr Kaswe then informed the court that he would be bringing a formal application for the court to visit where the items recovered from Mamu’s house and office are kept.
The judge adjourned the matter until November 26 at 11:00 a.m. for continuation of the trial.
(NAN)
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