By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The judiciary may have taken up responsibilities to strengthen the anti-terrorism war in Nigeria. The Federal High Court, Abuja, presided by Justice Emeka Nwite, in a judgment, sentenced two terrorists commanders to life imprisonment.
The terrorist commanders were identified as Abubakar Abba, Commander of Ansaru terror group, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, prosecuted by the Department of Security Service, DSS, for terrorism. The other commander, Abba, a.k.a. Abu Bara, sentenced to life imprisonment in conjunction with his co-accused, Mahmud Usman, a.k.a. Isah Adam/Mahmud. They had pleaded guilty to the 32- count terrorism charges brought against them by the DSS on behalf of the federal government.
The two convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment in counts 30 and 31, while they were sentenced to 20 years in the rest of the charges.
The Judge ordered that the jail term on the other counts should commence from the date of their arrest.
The convicts were arrested in separate operations between May and July 2025 by the DSS.
They were slammed with a 32-count terrorism charges, including terrorism and terrorism financing, kidnapping for ransom, illegal mining, funding terrorism, fabricating Improvised Explosive Devices, IED, among other charges.
They are accused of coordinating sleeper cells, attacks, and ties to groups in the Sahel/Maghreb.
