Kabiru Sokoto, other Boko Haram suspects yet to be arraigned

[DT]

 

Kabiru Abubakar Dikko aka Kabiru Sokoto, was first captured by the police in Abuja in January and later escaped in Abaji before he was recaptured by the SSS on February 10.  

Also, the State Security Service has not arraigned the eight suspected Boko Haram members arrested over the killing of a Briton and an Italian in Sokoto on March 8.

Daily Trust gathered that Kabiru Sokoto is still in SSS detention facility, and no information has been made public of whether he would be charged to court and when.

Efforts to get the SSS to give information on Kabiru Sokoto were rebuffed.

Kabiru was first arrested at the Borno State lodge in Abuja over the bombings at the St. Theresa's Catholic Church Madalla, Niger State, on Christmas Day which killed dozens of people. He escaped from a police team in Abaji town during a search on his house on January 15.

He was recaptured in Mutum-Biu in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State on February 10 by a joint team of the SSS and Military men.

Spokesman for the SSS, Marilyn Ogar, paraded him on the same day in Abuja.

Speaking to Daily Trust yesterday, a human rights activist and president of the Civic Rights Congress (CRC), Comrade Shehu Sani, said security challenges should not be an excuse for security agencies to violate fundamental rights of Nigerians.

"Nigeria is a democracy and must respect the rights of all citizens. It is against human rights and democratic tenets to arrest and detain suspects indefinitely.

"The arrest of Boko Haram members and their indefinite detention violates the principles of democracy, human rights and also against the concepts of our constitution," Sani said.

Speaking on the reported establishment of secret prisons for Boko Haram members, he said, "if the special detention centres are not going to be run like normal prisons, then they are illegal and its going to be challenged by human rights groups."  He said that special prisons were unheard of before Siberia in the defunct Soviet union and Guantanamo Bay by the United States.

He said that as a signatory to the United Nations Charter on Human Rights and African Charter on Human Rights, "Nigeria must protect the rights of people in detention. The environment where suspects are detained must be in accordance with the constitution, the UN and African charters on human rights."

He added that "detention centres in whatever guise are called, must be fashioned out to guarantee detainees' access to their families, lawyers and should be equipped with standard dietary system and medical needs of the detained."


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Daily Trust