Sudan blocks extradition of Nigerian bomb suspect: report
June 14, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has refused to hand over Nigerian bomb suspect Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche to Abuja, citing the lack of any judicial order, a newspaper reported.
Last month, Interpol announced that it arrested Ogwuche, who is believed to be the co-mastermind behind the bomb blast.
The Nigeria-based Vanguard newspaper quoted security sources as saying that an unnamed “powerful” Nigerian figure intervened to stop the extradition after reaching some old students at the International University of Africa, in Khartoum.
These sources said that the figure likely wanted to conceal details that might emerge from the suspect on some of the financiers of Boko Haram.
A 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.
The newspaper also noted that there is no bilateral agreement on extradition of criminals with Nigeria.
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)