The Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced two senior commanders of the Ansaru terrorist group, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist organisation, to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to multiple terrorism-related offences.
Justice Emeka Nwite delivered the judgment on Friday, convicting Abubakar Abba, popularly known as Abu Baraa, and Mahmud Usman, also known as Mamuda, on a 32-count charge filed by the Department of State Services (DSS) on behalf of the Federal Government.
The charges included terrorism, terrorism financing, kidnapping for ransom, illegal mining, fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other offences connected with terrorist operations.
Justice Nwite sentenced both men to life imprisonment on counts 30 and 31 and imposed additional 20-year prison terms on the remaining counts. The court ordered that the custodial sentences on the other counts run from the date of their arrest.
According to the prosecution, Abba and Usman were among the most senior figures in Ansaru, a terrorist organisation designated by the Nigerian government and widely regarded as an affiliate of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The DSS arrested the suspects in separate intelligence-led operations between May and July 2025 after they had spent years on Nigeria’s most-wanted list.
When they were arraigned in September 2025, the Federal Government accused the duo of coordinating terrorist sleeper cells across Nigeria and maintaining operational links with extremist groups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The prosecution alleged that the two commanders played central roles in some of the country’s most significant terrorist attacks and kidnappings over the past decade.
Among the allegations was their involvement in the July 2022 attack on the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Kuje, Abuja, during which more than 600 inmates escaped, as well as the 2022 assault on the Nigerian Army’s Wawa Cantonment in Niger State.
The defendants were also accused of masterminding the 2013 abduction of French engineer Francis Collomp in Katsina State, the 2019 kidnapping of the Magajin Garin Daura, Alhaji Musa Umar Uba, and several other kidnappings and armed robberies allegedly carried out to finance terrorist activities.
Court documents further alleged that investigators linked the defendants to plans to attack a uranium facility in Niger State and found that they had received specialised training in weapons handling, battlefield tactics and the manufacture of improvised explosive devices at terrorist camps in Mali and Libya.
Before their arrest, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) had identified Abu Baraa as the self-styled leader of Ansaru and Mamuda as his deputy and chief of staff.
National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu had said the pair supervised a network of sleeper cells operating across northern Nigeria, particularly around the Kainji National Park axis spanning Niger and Kwara states and extending into neighbouring Benin Republic.
Ribadu described their capture as one of Nigeria’s most significant counterterrorism successes, saying it dealt a major blow to Ansaru’s leadership structure.
Ansaru emerged in 2012 as a splinter faction of Boko Haram before aligning itself with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The group has been linked to numerous attacks on security personnel, government facilities and civilians, as well as several high-profile kidnappings across northern Nigeria.
The convictions represent one of the most significant terrorism prosecutions secured by Nigerian authorities against the leadership of the extremist group in recent years.
