Nigeria on Monday prepared for its first major prosecutions of suspects linked to the Boko Haram conflict in closed-door trials at a military base. The defendants have all been arrested and detained since the start of the Islamist insurgency in the country’s northeast in 2009. The justice ministry announced last month that some 1,670 detainees would go on trial at a civilian court at a military base in Kainji, in the central state of Niger.
A further 651 others held at the Giwa barracks in the capital of the northeastern state of Borno, Maiduguri, would then be tried. A government source involved in the process told AFP from Kainji that defence and prosecution lawyers arrived early to prepare for the cases.
“But from all indications, the whole of today (Monday) will be used for administrative purposes,” he said on condition of anonymity. It’s just about sorting out the record of the suspects to determine who is going to stand trial today and those who will be tried later.
“The trials will be conducted on an individual basis. Of course, where some suspects are accused of committing a particular crime, they will be tried in a group.”
Boko Haram began life as an Islamic sect and morphed into an IS-affiliated armed movement waging a deadly insurgency that has threatened stability in the impoverished Lake Chad region.
