The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday sentenced two Ansaru senior commanders to life imprisonment for terrorism offences.
The convicts are Mahmud Usman, a.k.a Abu Bara’a/Abbas/Mukhtar, the self-styled Emir of Ansaru; and Abubakar Abba, a.k.a Mahmud al-Nigeri/Malam Mamuda, who is the deputy and chief of staff to Bara’a.
Justice Emeka Nwite, in a judgment, convicted and sentenced them after the duo pleaded guilty to all the 32-count charge preferred against them by the DSS.
Justice Nwite held that he was minded to temper justice with mercy following the allocutus of the defendants’ lawyer, Bala Dakum, and Usman, who pleaded on behalf of the two convicts.
The judge, therefore, sentenced the convicts to a life imprisonment in counts 30 and 31.
He also sentenced them to a 20-year jail term without an option of fine in counts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 32 respectively.
Justice Nwite equally sentenced the 2nd defendant, Abba, to a 15-year imprisonment without option of fine, the same way Usman bagged the jail term.
He ordered that the sentencing shall run concurrently from the date of their arrest.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convicted terrorists had, earlier, pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned on Sept. 11, 2025, by the DSS after their arrest.
They were arrested in separate operations between May and July 2025 by the DSS.
While Usman was the 1st defendant, Abba was named as the 2nd defendant in the terrorism-related charge marked: FHC//ABJ/CR/464/2025.
Though the two of them pleaded not guilty to the counts, only Usman pleaded guilty to count 10 of the 32 counts which bordered on illegal mining for funding terrorism/arms and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
The first defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the remaining 31 counts while Abba pleaded not guilty to all charges.
However after months of trial, Dakum, who was their lawyer, informed the court on Monday at the commencement of trial that he had consultation with the defendants.
He said his clients had decided to change their plea from not guilty to a guilty plea in all the counts.
“After having consultation with the defendants my lord, they have agreed and are ready to change their plea and we apply that the charge be ready to them accordingly,” he said.
The prosecution counsel, David Kaswe, did not oppose the application by Dakum for the 32 counts to be read to the defendants again for them to take their plea.
After the counts were read to them, the defendants pleaded guilty.
Kaswe then applied that the defendants be convicted in line with Section 274 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 following their unequivocal plea of guilty.
He also cited a 2017 previous case delivered by the Supreme Court to back his application.
