British-born and Boko Haram member arrested over bomb attack

Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche was held in Sudan on an international arrest warrant



A British-born Nigerian army deserter has been arrested on suspicion of helping to mastermind a string of atrocities on behalf of the Boko Haram terrorist group.
Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, reportedly born in Britain, was held in Sudan on an international arrest warrant.
He is wanted for questioning in connection with two recent bombings in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, that killed nearly 100 people. One, in the suburb of Nyanya, killed 75 on April 14. A second, planted just yards from the scene of the first bomb, killed 19 people on May 1.


Mr Ogwuche, who is the son of a retired Nigerian colonel, is expected to arrive under police escort by plane in the state capital, Abuja, later on Thursday. State security officers are also expected to quiz him about Boko Haram's abduction of more than 200 girls from a school in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, in mid-April. The group has demanded the release of jailed Boko Haram militants in exchange for the girls' release.

It is understood that Mr Ogwuche originally served in an intelligence unit of the Nigerian army before deserting in 2006. He visited Britain as recently as 2011, and was previously questioned on suspicion of terrorism links upon his return to Abuja in November that year. However, he was then released on bail to his father.
News of his arrest is the first indication of any kind of direct link between Boko Haram and Britain, which has a large Nigerian diaspora community.
In a recent video address, terrorist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the April bombing, mockingly calling it “a minor incident” and promising more deadly assaults in the future.
Mr Ogwuche was traced to Sudan after a reward of almost £100,000 was put up, according to local media sources.

Sudan Court sentenced a pregnant woman to date for converting to Christianity

A Sudanese judge in Khartoum on Thursday sentenced to death a woman who is eight months pregnant for abandon her Muslim faith by converting to Christianity, convict her under the country’s strict Islamic sharia law.

Mariam Yahya Ibrahim was convicted last Sunday but had been given until Thursday to renounce.

"We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged," Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told 27-year-old Ibrahim as the verdict was read out in the Khartoum district of Haj Yousef.

The defendant reacted without emotion to her sentence, which also included 100 lashes for committing "adultery" for having married a non-Muslim man

Under sharia law, which has has been in force in Sudan since 1983, conversions are punishable by death.

Mariam was born to a Muslim father, but changed her faith when she married her Christian husband, a South Sudan national, human rights activists said.

According to Amnesty International, Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother's religion, because her Muslim father was absent.

Earlier in the hearing, an Islamic religious leader spoke with her in the caged dock for about 30 minutes.

Then she calmly told the judge: "I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy."

Sudan has a strongly Islamist government but, other than floggings, extreme sharia law punishments have been rare.

Outside the court, about 50 people held up signs that read “Freedom of Religion”, while some Islamists celebrated the ruling, chanting “God is Greatest”.

Young Sudanese university students have mounted a series of protests near Khartoum University in recent weeks asking for an end to human rights abuses, more freedoms and better social and economic conditions.

Western embassies have, along with human right activists, condemned what they said were human rights abuses and called on the Sudanese Islamist-led government to respect freedom of faith.

"We call upon the government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, including one's right to change one's faith or beliefs," the embassies of the United States, Canada, Britain and the Netherlands said in their statement.