Boko Haram: This Day bomber gets life imprisonment!

Boko Haram operative, Mustapha Umar, 34, was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

He was convicted over his involvement in the April 26, 2012 bombing of SOJ Plaza in Kaduna where three newspapers, Thisday, The Sun and The Moment had their offices.

Umar was convicted on one count of terrorism for the bombing. Umar, in what appeared to be a suicide attempt, drove a white Honda with registration number AL 306 MKA with improvised explosives devices into the premises of the plaza and detonated it, killing 3 people and injuring several others. He was apprehended by a mob as he attempted to flee the scene of the bombing.

Incidentally, around the same time, another suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into the Abuja headquarters of This Day newspaper killing at least 6 people.

Boko Haram Isalamist Group has in the past four years killed over 2000 people across the largely Islamic northern Nigeria. It has posed a major security challenge to the government of the country, which had to declare a state of emergency in three northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which are the hot spots of the group's terrorist activities.

Justice Ademola Adeniyi, while sentencing the Umar noted that his reason for the bomb attack untenable. Umar had given denigration of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) as reason for the attack.

Besides, the  accused did not show any sign of remorse for his actions.

While the prosecution team pushed for a death sentence, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency, stating that the convict is a youth and he has a family and aged parents who depend on him for livelihood.

The court however sentenced him to life imprisonment with a fine of N150million to families of victims of the terror act, which will be paid by the committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan on peaceful resolution of security challenges in the Northern part of the country.