….Says he didn’t collect any money from any Terrorist or the Victims or Their Families
….Says he has been a businessman of repute including being a journalist and publisher for over Two decades
Tukur Mamu, who is standing trial on an alleged terrorism-funding charges, opened his defence on April 23, 2026.
While opening his defence, Mamu, led in evidence by his defence lawyer, J.J. Usman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told the court that he has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since September 6, 2022, in its detention facility in Abuja.
“I am a journalist, a newspaper publisher, a PR consultant, and also have a media consulting firm for media consultancy services, for over two decades, and I am also into other businesses, including the selling of vehicles, especially foreign used vehicles popularly known as Tokubo Vehicles,” Mamu told the court when asked by his counsel Mr. Usman about what his occupation was before his arrest by the DSS.
When the lawyer asked him about the charges against him.
Mamu said, “The charges are frivolous in nature, they are unfounded, and the charges were just done for the purpose of making me a scapegoat since they failed in the assignment.”
He was asked if the charges were true, and he responded, “They are not true.”
Narrating about his arrest in Egypt, he said that a few days before his scheduled trip to Egypt, around 3rd or 4th September 2022, he had visited the Kaduna State Director of the DSS to tell him about his planned journey to Egypt. These are part of numerous visits I have undertaken to the Director, “I told him that I have a scheduled surgery to do in Egypt, and I also told him that I will have to travel with some of my family members because we will be proceeding to Saudi Arabia to perform the lesser hajj. He recorded my visit and assured me that he would transmit it to the DSS DG at the headquarters in Abuja.”
How did you and your family members travel to Egypt, his lawyer asked?
In his response, Mamu said, “We travelled by air through Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.
Was there any check at the airport, his lawyer asked?
“Yes, at the Airport, I went through the necessary checks and screening conducted by the DSS, NDLEA, Customs, and Immigration officials, and my family members and I were cleared to board the flight to Egypt,” Mamu said.
“Upon our arrival in Egypt, and about to do the usual clearance, when they saw my international passport, they said my family and I are under arrest, and that we would be returning to Nigeria the next morning on the next flight,” Mamu said.
Was it the first time you travelled to Egypt, either alone or with your family? The lawyer asked.
“No, that was not the first time I have traveled to Hajj, or Egypt; in fact, the day of the train attack was the day I returned from a medical trip in Egypt,” he said.
When asked if he was involved in the rescue of the victims of the train abduction from the onset by his lawyer, he said, “I was not involved in the process for rescue until after three months, when I was invited by the committee set up by the then Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Lucky Irabor, after three months when the committee made no head way in rescuing the victims of the train abduction.”
Mamu told the court that he was invited to be part of the committee because of the experience he has garnered being an active member of the Obasanjo/ Gumi Initiative, a 2021 dialogue effort between former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi aimed at curbing banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria’s North-West.
He said the initiative helped in the release of abducted students in Kebbi State and also the release of the students of the college of forestry in Kaduna state.
“I as a member of the initiative has joined other members of the same initiative had also visited dangerous forest, enclaves of the bandits in Northwest, however, not without seeking the approval of security agencies,” Mamu said.
“In most visits we had all always gone with security agencies including the police, in one of the visits, we went with the then Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, CP Umar Muri,” Mamu said.
Mamu said: “With all these experiences I gathered and as an active of the initiative, coupled with credible reports and investigations done by Desert Herald, this made the committee set up for the release of the abducted victims to invite me.”
Mamu said that, as there was no head made, the terrorists had issued a statement, which was widely reported in the media, that within three days they would begin executing the abducted victims, citing the delay in the release of the victims by the committee.
Furthermore, he told the court that in all these, he declined to be part of the committee, but with the intervention of Sheikh Gumi, after the committee and relatives of the abducted victims approached Sheikh Gumi, and he agreed to be part of the committee, but with a condition.
When asked what the condition was?
Mamu said that the condition is that there will be a single intermediary between the terrorists and the committee. He said this is to achieve success, and not to fall into the same problem the committee has fallen into in the previous three months, which made them not achieve any success in the rescue of the abducted victims. According to Mamu he said the greed and overambitiousness among the committee members formed the basis why, for those three months before he was invited to help in the rescue, there were no single person released.
He said that within days of his engagement, he scored a major milestone as 8 victims were released by the terrorists.
And when asked if any ransom was paid for the release of the victims, he stated that no form of ransom was paid, and he had earlier informed both the committee and even the relatives of the abducted that he would not be part of the rescue effort if any ransom of any form was involved.
He said that after the release of the first 8 victims, there began accusations and allegations that touched on his personal integrity. He was accused of giving or releasing major information to the terrorists. Following the above issue, he said he disengaged himself from the assignment and issued a letter that was widely publicized in the media, stating that he ceased to be part of the committee and would not be involved in anything regarding the rescue of the remaining abducted victims.
He said days later, the CDS reached out to him through Gen. Jalingo in his office in Kaduna, and asked him to rejoin the committee to help in the rescue of the remaining victims. He said he respectfully and politely declined to be part of the committee, and when they left, they went to the office of Sheikh Gumi, and Gumi approached him, and following Gumi’s intervention, he agreed to be part of the committee, and within seven days of engagement, 7 abducted victims were released, he also among the released victims is the wife of the then Commandant of the Command and Staff College, Jaji said that and like the first 8 that were released, there was no ransom and he never collected any money as well.
He also said that after that, the abducted victims were released, sometimes one person, sometimes two persons, as the case may be.
On the issue of the $300,000 found in his house by the DSS when they came to search his house, Mamu said the money was his money from the proceeds of his businesses.
When asked why keeping the United States Dollars in his house instead of a domiciliary account, he said these monies are exchanged from the bureau de change for ease of doing business with his clients, especially when ordering things like papers for printing and also for his tokubo vehicles business.
When asked about the N20 million found in his house, he said that it is proceeds from his businesses also.
On the issue of the Pump action gun found by the DSS during the search in his house, he said the gun is licensed that he has been using since 10 years, he also said he has the license as it was also tendered in the court.
His counsel to asked Mamu to tell the court over the issue he developing and designing a website for the terrorists.
Mamu said: I didn’t developed or design websites for the terrorists.” He also said based on his jurisdiction of work is he is just aa journalist and that is not an IT personnel and as such he has no single knowledge of how to design and develop a website.
Mamu when responding on the issue of the CCTV cameras found in his office and home, he said that his family members told him that the DSS confiscated the CCTV camera from his office, that he is already in the custody of the DSS before the DSS carried them away and that it was his family members that told him.
The judge, Justice Umar Mohameed adjourned the case to June 1, 2026 for cross examination by the DSS Counsel, David Kaswe.
