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Police Says Not To Blame For Poor Prosecution Of Alleged Nyanya Blast Mastermind

The Nigerian Police says that it should not be blamed for the lack of diligent prosecution against the alleged mastermind of the Nyanya bus park … Continue reading Police Says Not To Blame For Poor Prosecution Of Alleged Nyanya Blast Mastermind


Nyanya

NyanyaThe Nigerian Police says that it should not be blamed for the lack of diligent prosecution against the alleged mastermind of the Nyanya bus park bombing, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche.

A statement signed by the Force Public Relations Officer (P.R.O), Emmanuel Ojukwu, says that the Police Force’s involvement in the case of the alleged Nyanya bomber was just to extradite him from Sudan where he had fled immediately after the bombing, and that Ogwuche was promptly handed over to the DSS operatives immediately he landed in the country.

“It would be recalled that the Department of State Security (DSS), that had intelligence on the Nyanya Bombing and was investigating it, made a formal request to the Nigeria Police to assist in extraditing one Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche to Nigeria from Sudan, through the Interpol channel of which the Nigeria Police is well versed.

“It was at this stage and for this reason that the Nigeria Police Force filed charges against the suspected fugitive, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, based on information that he fled to Sudan.

“The filing of charges against the suspect is a legal procedure to enable the Nigeria Police formally request the Sudanese authorities to grant Nigeria’s extradition request in respect of the suspected fugitive.

“For the records, copy of filed charge(s) against a fugitive must be appended to documents in support of extradition request made to the host country, which in this case, is Sudan.

“These facts were made known to the court when it insisted on the production of the accused even before his extradition to Nigeria.”

The Police added, “For the record, at no time did the Nigeria Police arraign the suspect in court for terrorism related offences. Moreover, the purported prosecution/arraignment by the Police could not have happened as the Police could not prosecute a suspect it never arrested, never investigated nor had in its custody.”

According to the Police, following Ogwuche’s extradition , the DSS obtained a court order to remand the suspect for an initial period of three months in line with the provision of the terrorism act and also liaised with the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to undertake his prosecution.

The Police stated that it was “grossly erroneous, mischievous and malicious” to impute lack of diligent prosecution to the Police

The charges against Ogwuche were on Monday struck out by a Federal High Court in Abuja for lack of diligent prosecution by both the Police and the DSS.