ABUJA: A Nigerian court yesterday sentenced a suspected Islamist to life imprisonment for the bombing of a complex housing several newspapers that killed four people.
Abuja Federal High Court judge Adeniyi Ademola found Umaru Umaru Mustapha, 34, guilty of terrorism for the April 2012 bombing in the northern city of Kaduna. I hereby convict you as charged, Ademola said, adding that Mustapha, from the northeastern city of Maiduguri, home to the banned Islamist group Boko Haram, must serve his sentence with hard labour.
Mustapha was arrested in a car after hurling explosives at the office complex of This Day, Moment and the Sun newspapers in Kaduna. The office of This Day in the Nigerian capital Abuja was also bombed at about the same time. Five people were killed, including the bomber.
For an individual to put himself in a car, drive the car with 12 camp gas cylinders, with the intention to bomb the plaza shows the evil mind of the convict, the judge said of Mustapha.
AFP
