DSS drags Abu Bara’a, Mamuda to court on 32-count terrorism charges

The Department of State Services (DSS) has taken two top leaders of Ansaru, an Al-Qaeda-linked militant group, before a Federal High Court in Abuja on terrorism-related charges.

Those arraigned are Mahmud Usman, also known as Abu Bara’a/Abbas/Mukhtar, who is described as the sect’s Emir, and his deputy, Mahmud al-Nigeri, alias Malam Mamuda.

The duo appeared before Justice Emeka Nwite on Thursday to answer a 32-count charge that includes allegations of heading a terrorist organisation, funding its operations, recruiting fighters, and orchestrating violent assaults across Nigeria.

Both men were apprehended in recent security operations. Authorities allege they masterminded several deadly attacks, including the July 2022 invasion of Kuje prison in Abuja, where more than 600 inmates, among them 64 Boko Haram suspects, escaped.

They are also accused of leading the assault on the Nigerian Army’s Wawa Cantonment in Kainji, Niger State, that same year, which resulted in heavy casualties.

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National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu had earlier identified the pair as the brains behind the Kuje jailbreak. He described Abu Bara 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 say Mamuda trained in Libya from 2013 to 2015 under jihadist instructors from Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, specialising in weapons handling and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The NSA further linked the accused to the 2013 abduction of French engineer Francis Collomp in Katsina, the 2019 kidnapping of Musa Uba (Magajin Garin Daura), and the abduction of the Emir of Wawa.

Ribadu hailed their capture as a major breakthrough, noting that the suspects are believed to have extended networks across Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.