The Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced two senior commanders of the Ansaru terrorist group to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to multiple terrorism-related offences.
Justice Emeka Nwite convicted Abubakar Abba, also known as Abu Baraa, and Mahmud Usman, popularly called Mamuda, on a thirty-two-count charge filed by the Department of State Services on behalf of the Federal Government.
The charges include terrorism, terrorism financing, kidnapping for ransom, illegal mining, the manufacture of improvised explosive devices and other offences linked to terrorist activities.
The court sentenced both men to life imprisonment on two counts and imposed additional twenty-year jail terms on the remaining charges, with the sentences to take effect from the dates of their arrest.
According to the prosecution, the convicts were among the most senior leaders of Ansaru, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, and were arrested in separate intelligence-led operations conducted between May and July twenty twenty-five after years on Nigeria’s most-wanted list.
The Federal Government accused the pair of coordinating terrorist sleeper cells across Nigeria and maintaining operational links with extremist groups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Prosecutors also linked them to several major terrorist attacks and kidnappings, including the July twenty twenty-two attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, the attack on the Nigerian Army’s Wawa Cantonment in Niger State, and the abduction of French engineer Francis Collomp in Katsina State.