Terrorism: Court gives Justice Minister 7 days to file charges against Kogi University lecturer, others

The lecturer was accussed of having links with Boko Haram

An Abuja Federal High Court on Monday ordered the Minister of Justice to within seven days file charges against a Kogi State University lecturer, Nazeef Yunus, charged with terrorism.

Justice Ademola Adeniyi, gave the order in his ruling in Abuja.

He said that the Attorney-General should file the charges against the accused or show reason why the accused should not be discharged at the next sitting.

Mr. Yunus and five others arrested in October last year are being held in the custody of the Department of State Security. They were arrested on allegations of having links with Boko Haram and planning to carry out terrorist acts.

The other accused are: Umar Musa, Mustapha Yusuf, Ismaila Abdulazzez, Ibrahim Hayafu, and Salami Abdullahi.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Hassan Liman, is the counsel representing the six accused.

He had in a motion on notice filed by him, prayed the court to set aside an order exparte dated November 25, 2013, ordering the accused to be remanded in DSS custody.

Mr. Liman had argued that the order was obtained surreptitiously by the respondent.

He had also sought an order of the court to arraign the accused for prosecution or, alternatively admit the accused to bail pending the arraignment.

The counsel to the respondent, Ahmed Musa, had however opposed the application, citing the sensitive nature of the allegation against the accused.

Justice Adeniyi adjourned the case to January 23 for hearing.

(NAN)