The State Security Service (SSS) has vowed to appeal the life sentences imposed on two senior Ansaru commanders, arguing that only the death penalty fits the gravity of their crimes. The planned appeal brings into focus the widening gap between Nigeria’s legal framework, which retains capital punishment, and the state’s increasingly restrained practice of enforcing it.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the terror commanders — Mahmud Usman (also known as Abu Bara’a, Abbass or Mukhar) and Abubakar Abba (also known as Mahmud al-Nigeri or Malam Mamuda) — were arrested in an intelligence-led, multi-agency operation conducted between May and July 2025.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, announced their arrests in August of the same year. Mr Ribadu described Mr Usman as “Emir” of Ansaru, a first breakaway faction of Boko Haram with ties to al-Qaeda. He said the suspect was the overall coordinator of the group’s sleeper cells across Nigeria and mastermind of several kidnappings and terrorist financing operations.
The NSA described Mr Mamuda as the terror commander’s deputy who headed the notorious “Mahmudawa” faction of Ansaru based in and around Kainji National Park. According to him, Mr Mamuda trained in Libya under foreign jihadist instructors.
