A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced two men linked to the Ansaru terrorist group to life in prison.
Justice Emeka Nwite handed down the judgment on Monday. The convicts are Abubakar Abba, aka Abu Bara, commander of Ansaru, and his co-accused Mahmud Usman, aka Isah Adam/Mahmud.
Both men pleaded guilty to a 32-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services, 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 charge, including terrorism and terrorism financing, kidnapping for ransom, illegal mining, funding terrorism, fabricating Improvised Explosive Devices, IED, among other charges.
They were accused of coordinating sleeper cells, attacks, and ties to groups in the Sahel/Maghreb.
Usman had pleaded guilty to one-count of illegal mining for funding terrorism/arms and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment when he was arraigned.
