By Obinna Uballa
A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced Mahmud Usman, a top commander of the proscribed Ansaru sect, to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges.
Usman, widely known by his aliases Abu Bara’a, Abbas, and Mukhtar, admitted to engaging in illegal mining and funnelling the proceeds into the purchase of arms used for kidnappings and terrorist attacks.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Emeka Nwite ordered Usman to remain in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) pending trial on 31 additional counts still before the court.
The militant, who styled himself as the “Emir of Ansaru,” was arraigned alongside his deputy and chief of staff, Mahmud⁶ al-Nigeri, popularly known as Malam Mamuda. Both men are facing a 32-count indictment alleging they led a terrorist organisation, recruited fighters, coordinated violent operations, and financed attacks across Nigeria.
Ansaru, a splinter of Boko Haram, has been accused of orchestrating several high-profile assaults, including the July 2022 Kuje Prison break in Abuja, in which more than 600 inmates, including 64 Boko Haram suspects, escaped. The group was also reportedly linked to the deadly 2022 attack on the Nigerian Army’s Wawa Cantonment in Niger State.
Recall that National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu had described Usman as “the coordinator of terrorist sleeper cells across Nigeria and the mastermind of several high-profile kidnappings and armed robberies used to fund terrorism.”
Investigators further allege that Mamuda, his deputy, trained in Libya between 2013 and 2015 under jihadist instructors, specialising in weapons handling and improvised explosive device (IED) fabrication.
The duo have also been linked to the 2013 abduction of French engineers Francis Collomp, the 2019 kidnapping of Musa Uba (Magajin Garin Daura), and the abduction of the Emir of Wawa.
