Nigerian Pleads Guilty To Terror Charge In US Court - PM News, Lagos
Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi: pleads guilty for aiding Al Qaeda
A Nigerian has pleaded guilty in New York to charges he took part in a
Yemen-based al-Qaida faction’s efforts to spread propaganda intended to
encourage terror attacks.
Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi entered the plea on Tuesday to charges of
providing material support to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He
faces up to 30 years in prison at his August sentencing in federal court
in Brooklyn.
The 33-year-old Babafemi was extradited last year from Nigeria. U.S.
prosecutors say he traveled to Yemen in 2010 to help the al-Qaida group
recruit English speakers for its media operations.
The operations included publication of an online magazine for
aspiring terrorists. The magazine has published recipes for homemade
bombs and suggested targets in the United States and elsewhere.
The plea came ahead of a July 14 trial date.
Prosecutors said that, from January 2010 to August 2011, Babafemi
traveled from Nigeria to Yemen twice to meet with leaders of al Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP.
“The defendant traveled to Yemen to put himself at the disposal of a
violent terrorist organization that has repeatedly demonstrated its
determination to inflict bodily and economic harm on the United States
and its citizens,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a
statement.
The U.S. government said Babafemi worked on AQAP’s media operations,
including the publication of its magazine, called “Inspire.”
The group’s leadership, including Anwar al-Awlaki, paid Babafemi
almost $9,000 to recruit English-speaking people from Nigeria,
prosecutors said. Awlaki, a U.S. citizen born in New Mexico, was killed
in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
An indictment unsealed in February 2013 charged Babafemi, also known
as “Ayatollah Mustapha,” with four counts including conspiracy to
provide material support to AQAP, and use of firearms.
U.S. District Judge John Gleeson scheduled sentencing for August 27. Babafemi faces a maximum of 30 years in priso
There are reports that 200 of the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram
insurgents have been sighted in southern Borno in seven buses awaiting
movement to an unknown destination.
