I belong to ‘Shurah Council’ not Boko Haram, Kabiru Sokoto tells Court .

ABUJA -The alleged mastermind of the Christmas day bomb blast that killed about 44 persons and wounded 75 others at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church at Madalla, Niger State, in 2011, Kabiru Umar, a.k.a Kabiru Sokoto, Wednesday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that though he was a high profile member of the Islamic “Shurah Council” in Nigeria, he never joined the Boko Haram sect.

Sokoto who testified as his own witness, Wednesday, told the trial court that though he initially had sympathy for the organization, he said his elder brother whose name he gave as Suleiman Aliyu Sokoto, persistently warned him not to get himself involved with the sect.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “I am a member of the Shurah Council but not under Boko Haram.  I did not participate in any bombing,” he added.

When he was asked by the prosecuting council, Mrs Chioma Onuegbu, if it is true that he got his orders from Abu Shekau, Sokoto said: “As we all know, Shekau is a leader of Boko Haram but not the Shura Council and it is not true that when I escaped from police custody that I spoke to Shekau on phone.”Asked if he was aware that it is Shekau that gives orders regarding where bomb attacks should be carried out and that the sect had so many sections including a wing in charge or armed robbery, the accused replied, “My lord, it can be so, I don’t know but so I have been hearing.