An Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander, Hussaini Ismaila, has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for his role in a series of deadly terror attacks carried out in Kano State over a decade ago.
Naijaonpoint reports that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, delivered the judgment on Tuesday after Ismaila, also known as Mai Tangaran, changed his plea to guilty on a four-count charge filed by the Department of State Services (DSS).
According to the prosecution, Ismaila coordinated multiple ISWAP-linked assaults in 2012, including attacks on: Kano Police Headquarters, Bompai; Mobile Police Base, Kabuga Road; Pharm Centre Police Station; Angwa Uku Police Station.
Several people were injured in the operations described as part of ISWAP’s early onslaught in northern Nigeria.
Ismaila was arrested on August 31, 2017, at Tsamiyya Babba Village in Gezewa Local Government Area of Kano State. He was later arraigned under the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013.
The trial suffered repeated delays due to appeals and a trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness of his statements to the DSS.
When the prosecution eventually opened its case, it presented five witnesses, including two DSS operatives and two civilians who witnessed some of the attacks.
After the fifth prosecution witness testified, Ismaila reversed his earlier not-guilty plea. His counsel from the Legal Aid Council, P. B. Onijah, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, arguing that the defendant was remorseful and wanted to avoid wasting the court’s time.
Justice Nwite found the ISWAP commander guilty on all counts and issued the following sentences: 15 years for Count 1, 20 years each for Counts 2, 3, and 4.
The court ruled that all sentences will run concurrently, and the jail term will commence from the date of his arrest, August 31, 2017.
The judge further ordered the Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service to confine Ismaila in any designated facility and mandated that he undergo rehabilitation and de-radicalisation upon completion of his sentence before reintegration into society.
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