Contrary to widely circulated media reports of his meeting with the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful resolution of security Challenges in the North, the alleged mastermind of the Madala Catholic Church bombing, Kabiru Umar, a.k.a Kabiru Sokoto, says he never met with the Committee.
Dismissing the report on Monday, Sokoto accused the committee of feeding Nigerians with lies.
Sokoto is standing trial for allegedly masterminding the Christmas day bomb blast that killed about 44 persons and wounded 75 others at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, in 2011.
Speaking through his lawyer, Mr. Sheriff Okoh, he maintained that as at the time the committee said it met him at Kuje Prison, he was standing trial before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.
“I think the press is supposed to pick information, investigate such information before making it available to the public. But I think what they have been doing in this regard is to sit down and wait for people to feed them with lies.
“For instance our client has pleaded not guilty in this matter and we are doing our best to see how it is established that he is not guilty as he has pleaded.
“For those of you who were in court, it is clear that our client never masterminded the Madalla bomb blast. They have told the whole world that they have visited Kabiru Sokoto at Kuje prison.
“In fact that he was in the prison together with more than 40 other people who were under arrest or detention and that they have discussed.
“Sincerely, Kabiru Sokoto, we have asked him and he has confirmed again and again that no member of the amnesty committee, or anybody who is their privy or agent visited him with respect to the issue of amnesty or otherwise.
“That means that these honourable members of the Nigerian society have been brandishing lies about a process that they have on their own initiated and agreed to carry on.
“This is very wrong because we expect that they will be honourable men and state exactly, things that have taken place and what they have experienced, and not lying to Nigerians.
“Now, most fundamentally, we want to state categorically that our client has said he is not guilty. We will wait for the trial to be concluded, then we will go ahead and follow everything up accordingly. But for now, we believe in the integrity of the Judge, we believe in the integrity of the court and we believe in the sanctity of our democracy”, he stated.
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