A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced two senior Ansaru commanders, arrested between May and July 2025, to life imprisonment.
Justice Emeka Nwite convicted Mahmud Usman, Ansaru’s self-styled “Emir,” and his deputy Abubakar Abba on all 32 terrorism-related counts after they abruptly changed their pleas to guilty on Monday, weeks after their names surfaced in negotiations over the Oriire kidnapping. The court imposed life sentences on two counts and 20 years each on the rest, running from their 2025 arrests.
The Department of State Services says it will appeal, calling the sentences too lenient given that Oriire kidnappers beheaded two teachers specifically to pressure authorities into releasing these two men. Negotiators refused, and 46 pupils and teachers were eventually freed in a rescue operation without concessions.
National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu has previously described the pair as overseeing an Ansaru sleeper-cell network stretching from Niger and Kwara states into the Benin Republic, operating around the Kainji National Park axis.
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