The Katsina high court has sentenced Hauwa’u Mukhtar, a female arms courier, to death by hanging for conspiracy to commit, aid and abet terrorism.
According to Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, Mukhtar was arrested by operatives ot the Department of State Services (DSS) at Jibia motor park in Katsina state.
Makama said she was arrested while attempting to transport 438 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to one Ado, a notorious bandit kingpin, operating in Dunburum forest, Zamfara state.
The publication added that the DSS arraigned her on a two-count charge at the high court presided over by A. B. Bawale, the trial judge.
After witness testimonies, tendered exhibits, and final addresses by both prosecution and defence counsel, the judge held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Bawale sentenced Mukhtar to death by hanging in accordance with the provisions of the Penal Code Law of Katsina state, 2021.
In June the federal high court in Abuja convicted four persons for their involvement in the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo state.
Four out of the five suspects initially arraigned were convicted on all nine counts preferred against them by the federal government.
The suspects — Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar — were arraigned on August 11, 2022, on a nine-count terrorism charge.
