The Katsina high court has sentenced Hauwa’u Mukhtar, a female arms courier, to death by hanging over charges of 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 apprehended while allegedly trying to move 438 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to one Ado, a notorious bandit kingpin operating in Dunburum forest, Zamfara state.
The publication noted that the DSS subsequently arraigned her on a two-count charge before the high court presided over by A. B. Bawale, the trial judge.
After hearing witness accounts, examining exhibits tendered in court, and receiving final submissions from both prosecution and defence counsel, the judge ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Bawale consequently sentenced Mukhtar to death by hanging in line with the provisions of the Penal Code Law of Katsina state, 2021.
In a related development, a federal high court in Abuja in June convicted four individuals over 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 found guilty on all nine counts filed 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.