A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday, September 11, 2025, sentenced one of the two Ansaru terrorist organisation leaders recently captured by the Department of State Services (DSS), Mahmud Muhammed Usman (aka Abu Bara’a), to 15 years imprisonment for illegal mining.
Usman hails from Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State, while Abubakar Abba aka Isah Adam or Mahmud Al-Nigeri, hails from Daura, Katsina State.
The two suspected terrorists were arraigned by the DSS on 32 counts of terrorism and other related offences.
Usman, who is the first defendant, pleaded guilty to count 10 of the 32 count charges which bothered on illegal mining.
Accordingly, the court presided over by Justice Emeka Nwite, convicted Usman of the crime and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
However, the second alleged Ansaru Commander, Abubakar Abba, who was arraigned alongside Bara’a, denied the accusation of economic sabotage.
Usman and Abba were charged for terrorism offences by the Department of the State Services (DSS), a development that made Usman to plead guilty to the count 10 of the 32 count charges which bothered on economic crime, but denied 31 of the charges, while Abba pleaded not guilty to the 32 count charge on terrorism offences.
During the court proceedings, the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, Mohammed Babadoko Abubakar, said in the charges that the two defendants committed the crime between 2015 and 2024.
The two alleged terrorists were also accused of bombing Wawa Military Cantonment in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, receiving training in weapon handling and fabrication of improvised explosive devices.
The DSS equally alleged that both Usman and Abba belonged to foreign terror groups, engaged terrorism financing, kidnapping and receiving training on war tactic from a terrorising organization in Mali.
The DSS also accused the duo in another charge of kidnapping a Customs officer and another Immigration Officer who was killed while in their custody.
The DSS claimed that the accused persons collected ransom running into millions of naira from families of their victims before they were captured.
In the same vein, Usman and Abba were accused of engaging in unlawful mining of mineral resources without valid license from which they also made millions of naira.
One of the charges by DSS against the two defendants is that the huge amount of money made from kidnapping ransom and unlawful minerals mining were deployed to the procurement of huge arms and ammunitions including improvised explosive devices.
The DSS further alleged that the two men received training on terrorism and war tactics in Sudan and Mali and also facilitated same for their followers.
The two alleged terrorist leaders were equally charged with concealing information on terror attacks on various locations in Niger State.
Following their denial of the charges, Justice Nwite ordered that they should be remanded in DSS facility in Abuja and fixed October for the commencement of their trial.
In related development, an alleged gunrunner Hucaifa Haruna was slammed with five-count charge by DSS before the same Justice Nwite.
The accused, however pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was also ordered to be remanded at the DSS facility pending his trial on October 17.
Usman and Abba were captured in a recent operation by a joint security team in a forest location which is viewed in the security circle as a major breakthrough in the ongoing fight against insurgency and terrorism in the country.
