BREAKING: Court sentences two Ansaru commanders to life imprisonment over terrorism charges
By Adejayan Gbenga
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday sentenced two Ansaru commanders, Abubakar Abba, also known as Abu Bara’a, and Mahmud Usman, also known as Isah Adam and Mahmud, to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to 32 terrorism-related charges.
Justice Emeka Nwite delivered the judgment after the two defendants changed their earlier not-guilty pleas to guilty. The court sentenced them to life imprisonment on counts 30 and 31 and imposed 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the remaining counts, with all sentences ordered to run from the date of their arrest.
The Department of State Services (DSS), acting on behalf of the Federal Government, had arraigned the defendants before the court on September 11, 2025, on a 32-count charge bordering on terrorism and other related offences.
The charges included terrorism, terrorism financing, kidnapping for ransom, illegal mining, funding terrorist activities, fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and other offences linked to insurgency.
According to the prosecution, the convicts coordinated terrorist sleeper cells, orchestrated attacks, and maintained operational links with Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups operating across the Sahel and Maghreb regions.
The trial had earlier stalled after defence counsel, Bala Dakum, complained that DSS officials denied him access to the defendants, preventing him from adequately preparing their defence before the court.
When the hearing resumed, the prosecution called an operative identified only by the codename “Triple A,” who testified that the defendants confessed to receiving weapons training in Libya, admitted membership of the Ansaru terrorist group, and acknowledged maintaining ties with extremist groups across the Sahel and Maghreb.
Following their guilty pleas to all 32 counts, Justice Nwite convicted both men accordingly and imposed the sentences, bringing to a close the high-profile terrorism prosecution.
