Nigerian student faces jail time, deportation over threat to bomb UK university

A Nigerian master's student in the United Kingdom, Somtochukwu Okwuoha, has been remanded in custody after a jury found him guilty of making terrorist threats against Dundee University in Scotland.

The BBC reports that Mr Okwuoha, 26, claimed he had enlisted ISIS, an international terrorist organisation, to help bomb the university.

Also, Mr Okwuoha told staff members of the university that he planned to target Dundee in a chemical attack.

ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It is a Sunni jihadist group with a particularly violent ideology. It calls itself a caliphate and claims religious authority over all Muslims. The group was inspired by al Qaeda but was later publicly expelled from it.

Mr Okwuoha was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing in December.

He faces jail and deportation after a jury found him guilty of making terrorist threats against the university.

The jury found Mr Okwuoha, a master's student of International Energy Studies, guilty of seven charges.

The sheriff presiding over the case at the Perth Sheriff Court in Scotland, William Wood, will consider the Crown's request for an order to deport Mr Okwuoha to Nigeria.

Witnesses' testimonies

At trial, witnesses told the jury that Mr Okwuoha told the university staff members he planned to carry out mass murder on the Dundee University campus.

The witnesses narrated how Mr Okwuoha claimed he had a military background and was capable of making bombs and unleashing a deadly virus on the city.

A 58-year-old retired director of student services, Keith Mackle, told Perth Sheriff Court he became aware of "serious concerns" in the autumn of 2021.

He said staff members received emails making terrorist threats.

"Expect a massive bomb explosion at the University of Dundee. I have contacted ISIS terrorists to plant bombs on campus.

"I can assure you staff and students will die in great numbers. 9/11 will be a joke compared to what will happen.

"Blood will spill and flesh will be scattered," one of the mails read.

Shane Taylor, an accommodation officer, told the court that Mr Okwuoha accused him of being racist and said he planned to wipe out Scottish people as revenge.

Mr Okwuoha, a prisoner at Perth, was found guilty of threatening to murder staff members at the university and commit terrorist crimes between December 2021 and June 2022.

The embattled student was found guilty of threatening to commit mass murder, using biological weapons, revealing staff details to international authorities, and claiming to have planted bombs.

He was also found guilty of threatening to kill police officers and detonate bombs he had planted at Dundee University.

In June, another Nigerian student, Cyril Kenneth, who arrived in the UK in February, was apprehended by the police for allegedly attempting to sexually harass minors in the Belfast province of the country.

The police said there was evidence of Mr Kenneth grooming and sexually harassing two girls between the ages of 14 and 15.