{"id":127659,"date":"2026-06-16T20:01:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=127659"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:01:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:01:04","slug":"court-frees-two-benue-men-accused-of-boko-haram-membership-jails-two-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-frees-two-benue-men-accused-of-boko-haram-membership-jails-two-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Frees Two Benue Men Accused of Boko Haram Membership, Jails Two Others"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By John Azu<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday discharged and acquitted two men from Benue State accused of belonging to the Boko Haram terrorist group after the prosecution withdrew the charges against them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Binta Nyako struck out the charges against Torkuma Kumatto and Kulega Iorungina, both natives of Benue State, bringing an end to the terrorism allegations filed against them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;The charge is hereby struck out and the suspect is discharged,&#8221; Justice Nyako ruled in the case involving Iorungina.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Iorungina had been arraigned on a two-count charge alleging that he knowingly became a member of the proscribed Boko Haram sect in 2020.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following the defendants&#8217; pleas, their counsel, Dauda Hassan, argued that there was no evidence linking the accused persons to Boko Haram activities, noting that the insurgent group had no known operational foothold in Benue State.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Subsequently, prosecution counsel, P.N. Jibo, applied to withdraw the charges, a request that was granted by the court.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The proceedings formed part of the ongoing mass trial of suspected Boko Haram members before the Federal High Court. The current phase is reported to be the third batch of trials involving about 490 suspects.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While discharging the two Benue defendants, the court also handed down prison sentences to two other defendants convicted on terrorism-related offences.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Nyako sentenced Kabiru Mohammed, a resident of Kabonga village in Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina State, to 35 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to receiving weapons training from Boko Haram terrorists in Maiduguri, Borno State.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court found Mohammed guilty of undergoing training in the use of AK-47 rifles and failing to disclose information about one Malam Audu, alleged to be a Boko Haram weapons trainer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In delivering judgment, Justice Nyako ordered that the sentence take effect from the date of Mohammed&#8217;s arrest in 2015.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;He is to serve at a place designated by the government and to undergo rehabilitation and deradicalisation,&#8221; the judge ruled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a separate case, the court convicted Jibrin Adamu on one count of failing to disclose information relating to the activities of Boko Haram members, including information concerning his elder brother.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Nyako sentenced Adamu to 10 years imprisonment, the minimum punishment prescribed under Section 8 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2013.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Before sentencing, defence counsel Hassan pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, drawing attention to uncertainty surrounding Adamu&#8217;s age.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the lawyer, although official records indicated that Adamu was 17 years old, investigators had assessed his actual age to be 25.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ongoing terrorism trials are part of efforts by the Federal Government to prosecute individuals arrested during military operations against Boko Haram and other insurgent groups in the North-East, while also providing rehabilitation and deradicalisation programmes for convicted offenders.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Azu The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday discharged and acquitted two men from Benue State accused of belonging to the Boko Haram terrorist group after the&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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