Nigeria has secured 386 convictions in a sweeping four-day mass terrorism trial in Abuja, in one of the country’s largest judicial actions against suspected militants and terror financiers, as authorities seek to show a tougher response to a worsening security crisis stretching across much of the north. The latest phase of the trial began on Tuesday and ended on Friday before a panel of 10 Federal High Court judges. According to Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi, the government filed 508 cases and won 386 convictions, while eight defendants were discharged, two were acquitted and 112 cases were adjourned to a later session.
Many of the defendants pleaded guilty, according to Reuters and the Associated Press, and sentences ranged from five years to life imprisonment, depending on the charges. Some reports said a number of convicts received terms of up to 20 years. Judges also ordered rehabilitation and deradicalisation programmes as part of the sentencing process, reflecting the government’s attempt to combine punishment with reintegration for some offenders. Fagbemi said the outcome was intended to send a clear message to anyone involved in terrorism or its financing.
The proceedings are part of a broader terrorism trial process that began in 2017 and has involved thousands of defendants linked to Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. Reuters said the latest prosecutions included suspects tied to both groups, which remain at the centre of the long-running insurgency in northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram launched its rebellion in 2009, and the conflict has since killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than two million, according to humanitarian reporting cited by Reuters and current UN displacement data.
The trial also comes as Nigeria faces a broader and more fragmented security emergency. Beyond Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast, armed groups linked to kidnapping, rural banditry and extremist violence have spread instability across the northwest and north-central zones. AP reported that the IS-linked Lakurawa group is active in communities near the Niger border, while long-running clashes between mostly Muslim Fulani herders and largely Christian farming communities continue to fuel deadly violence in other parts of the north.
For the government, the Abuja mass trial is meant to show progress not only on the battlefield but also in the courtroom. But it also underscores how large and complex Nigeria’s security crisis remains, with insurgency, banditry, communal conflict and mass displacement still defining daily life for millions.
