A relative of one of the six Nigerian nationals convicted by an Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for funding Boko Haram in 2019 has accused Dubai authorities of coercing his relatives into confession.
The court in Abu Dhabi has sentenced Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu to life in prison, while Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were each given a 10-year sentence.
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Ibrahim and Bashir’s brother, Yusuf Ali Yusuf, accused authorities in UAE of imprisoning his two brothers on trumped-up charges.
Yusuf, the brother of Ibrahim Ali Hassan and Bashir Ali Yusuf, who was sentenced to 10 years, disclosed to Daily Trust that his brother Ibrahim was a registered forex trader in the country and has a UAE certificate of residence.
According to Yusuf, one of the convicts, Surajo Abubakar, was coerced into confessing the crime and was enticed to set up his two brothers.
Following the arrest and torture of Surajo, Ibrahim and Bashir were arrested and tortured into submission and confession.
Yusuf said, “My brothers were arrested in 2017 in Dubai and waited for trial for one year and six months before there were taken to court.
“During the trial, the authorities refused to allow them to speak before the court let alone defend themselves.”
Between The Nigerian Government and the Relative
Yusuf stated that since the beginning of the trial the family of the convicts had been working hard to convince relevant authorities in Nigeria to follow up the trial in order to unravel the circumstances surrounding the case of the duo.
He stated, “We were several times at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where we met with the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim, who gave us the assurance that the Nigerian Government would do anything humanly possible to investigate the matter.
“We were later referred to the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who gave us the same assurance, before we were blocked from seeing him.
“Our last resort was to take the matter to the office of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo where another promise to follow the case to its logical conclusion was made.
When contacted by Daily Trust in an earlier report, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said his office was aware of the case.
He said his office had requested authorities in UAE to send the copy of the trial of the suspects to the Nigerian government, but the authorities were yet to respond.
What People say About The Trial
Ammar Aminu said that Nigerian government’s nonchalant attitude towards issues concerning its citizens resident in other countries was the reason many Nigerians were smeared.
Aminu said, “For long many innocent Nigerians are being smeared because the authorities in the country don’t care about the destiny of its people elsewhere.”
A forex trader at Wapa Kano Ibrahim Aliyu Usman (Shanee) disclosed that the suspects might not have committed the crime they were accused of.
He said, “I know them as fellow businessmen for many years. They are trustworthy and honest. There is no way they could have commit the crime since they were into a legitimate trade.”
The defendant of the accused, Barrister Maáruf accused the Nigeria government of treating the case of his clients with a pinch of salt, saying that was why they were into the conundrum.
He said, “There is no convincing evidence given by the court that my clients have any link with Boko Haram. Nigerian government can exploit international diplomacy to free the suspects since there is no evidence linking them with what they are being accused of.”
On his part, Barrister Bulama Bukarti, an analyst and a researcher on the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria said there was something fishy about the case.
He said: “Since the time I come across the case I understand that there are more questions than answers about the trial. But from all indications, UAE had not consulted authorities in Nigeria during the investigation.
“Even if Nigerian government is convinced with the trial it should have set up a committee of inquiry to investigate the matter in order know who the accomplices of the suspects are in Nigeria.”
He added that if the government finds out that the suspects are unnecessarily being detained, it has the right to challenge the trial and free its citizens.
In April 2019, a Nigerian student, Zainab Aliyu escaped execution by the skin of her teeth. Airport workers planted drug on Aliyu’s baggage which led to her arrest in Saudi Arabia.
Following a strong but peaceful protest by student unions in Kano State, the Saudi authorities later dropped the charge and freed the student.
