Oct 1 bombings: Why suspected mastermind must die –FG

For more than one hour yesterday, the Federal Government gave reasons before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja why a suspected mastermind of the October 1, 2010 twin bombings in Abuja, Mr. Edmund Ebiware, must die by hanging.
Ebiware is standing trial along three others for complicity in the bombings, treason and treasonable felony. The government said the accused must not escape the hangman’s noose for allegedly being an ally of Henry Okah. Okah was suspected to be the chief mastermind of the Abuja 2010 bombings, given the confessions he made to men of the State Security Service, SSS.
But Ebiware yesterday asked the court to dismiss the case on the grounds that he could not be convicted until Okah was charged, prosecuted and convicted. The Federal Government, which urged the court to discountenance Ebiware’s argument, listed other reasons why he must be convicted.
It said the accused was aware of the alleged plans by Okah to bomb Abuja on October 1, 2010 and embarrass the Federal Government as far back as September 2010 without informing the President, governor or any peace officer in the country to stop it. The government explained that the offence was contrary to the provisions of Section 40 of the Criminal Code.
Ebiware is also accused of leaking information to arrest Okah after the Warri bombing. The government also said that his seized phone contained messages which showed that he knew of the October bombings and that he justified them when a witness and his friend who was involved in the Warri bombing, simply identified as Mr. X, challenged him.
He was quoted as saying that the bombing was right on the account that the amnesty programme which they all suffered for was being run in a way not favourable to them. Government’s lead prosecution counsel, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), who referred to three separate statements made by Ebiware and tendered in court, said he confessed to the SSS that Okah planned the October 1 attack to embarrass the government, simply because he had an axe to grind with the President.
Izinyon told the court that the allegation that he told the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timpre Sylva, Mr. Timi Alaibe and the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Maduekwe, was a lie as those invited to court denied it.
But Ebiware’s counsel, Mr. Goddie Uche, said the extra judicial statements being credited to him did not have the legal weight to convict him. He added that the judge would not be fair to convict him when the prosecution had woefully failed to prove its case particularly by not inviting President Goodluck Jonathan and Alison- Maduekwe to give evidence in the matter.
The trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, who took final addresses from both the prosecution and the defence yesterday on whether Ebiware must die or not, said he would give his judgment on January 13, 2013. Many of the suspected masterminds of the October 1 bombings were arrested after the blasts but only four suspects were charged with waging war against the state to intimidate President Jonathan. The offence is contrary to and punishable under Section 37(1) of the Criminal Code, Cap 77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 1990.