Contrary to reports making rounds that Kabiru Dikko, mastermind of 2011 Christmas Day bombing, has been released courtsey President Buhari, the Nigerian Prisons Service has said yesterday that he is still in custody..
“Please disregard the rumour. He’s still in prisons custody,” Biyi Jeje, NPS’ spokesman, said.
Mr. Dikko, also known as Kabiru Sokoto, was convicted in December 2013 after being found guilty of plotting the car suicide bombing on St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, near Abuja.
The attack left about 40 people dead. Publications and blogs this week reported that Dikko, 32, might have been released as part of a purported prisoners swap deal between the Federal Government and the Boko Haram sect. Boko Haram has demanded the release of its members held by the government in exchange for Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the group in 2014.
While the Federal Government has indicated interest in a prisoners swap deal with Boko Haram, the modalities for this have yet to be made public. “There’s no truth in the reports claiming that Mr. Dikko had been released,’’ Jeje said yesterday.
A senior Boko Haram operative, Dikko, was first arrested on January 1, 2012, by the police but he escaped from custody two days later when he was being taken to his residence at Abaji, Federal Capital Territory, for a search. He was re-arrested at Mutum-Biu in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State in February 2012 and subsequently charged under Section 4(1) (a) of Terrorism and Prevention Act of 2011. Abuja Federal High Court found him guilty of terrorism and handed him a life sentence on December 20, 2013.
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