Sudan extradites Boko Haram suspect to Nigeria
July 16, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Nigerian authorities said that Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, who was fingered as the mastermind of the 14 April bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja, has been extradited from Sudan.
Last May, Interpol announced that it arrested Ogwuche, who is believed to be the co-mastermind behind the bomb blast.
The coordinator of the National Information Center, Mike Omeri, announced in press statements on Tuesday that extradition of Ogwuche came within the framework of security cooperation between Sudan and Nigeria, stressing his country’s insistence to bring acts of violence and terrorism to an end.
The Sudanese ambassador to Abuja, Tag Alsir Mahgoub, had previously said there are 17 conditions to be met before handing over the suspect to Nigeria including amending the bilateral agreement on extradition of criminals.
He demanded the Nigerian side to provide proof of Ogwuche’s involvement in Nyanya incident.
Nigerian press had accused Sudan of failing to cooperate with the Nigerian authorities.
The Nigeria-based Vanguard newspaper said that team of Nigerian officials including security agents who travelled to Sudan with the aim of effecting the extradition were turned back by Sudanese officials on the grounds that that they needed the court papers particularly the charge sheet detailing the offences for which Ogwuche was being prosecuted.
Ogwuche, a student of Arabic at Khartoum’s International University of Africa, is a British-born Nigerian who was a former serviceman with the Nigerian army. He is known to have deserted the army in 2006.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful”, has waged a five-year campaign of bombings, massacres and abductions that has killed thousands in its drive to impose an Islamic state on Africa’s most populous nation.
(ST)