Two Nigerian courts have handed down significant terrorism sentences within a fortnight of each other, signalling sustained judicial activity against cross-border criminal networks that security agencies say continue to funnel arms and personnel across Nigeria’s northern borders.
In Sokoto, Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court No. 23 sentenced three men to death by hanging on terrorism and arms proliferation charges. The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad, a Nigerien national also known as Sallau, Jabbi Alhaji Yalle, and Kabiru Muhammad, were arrested by the Department of State Services Counter Terrorism Unit on June 13, 2025, in connection with cross-border arms trafficking and terrorism activities. The court also ordered the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the men to the Federal Government.
The Sokoto verdict came approximately two weeks after a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced five men to 25 years imprisonment each for their roles in the November 2025 attack on St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State. Justice Binta Nyako handed down that judgment after all five defendants, including two Nigerien nationals, pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges. The charges covered their involvement in a conspiracy to transport 15 AK-103 rifles and over 1,400 rounds of ammunition from the Diffa region of Niger Republic to a named Boko Haram member based in Borgu, Niger State.
Both involve Nigerien nationals operating within Nigerian territory. Both concern the movement of weapons and personnel across the Niger-Nigeria border. And both resulted in convictions secured by DSS prosecutions, suggesting that the agency’s counter-terrorism unit is building a consistent record of cases that reach verdict rather than stalling in the courts.
The broader context is one of persistent cross-border insecurity along Nigeria’s northern frontier. The Diffa region of Niger Republic, named in the Abuja case, has long been identified as a transit corridor for arms and fighters moving between the Lake Chad Basin and communities in Nigeria’s north-west and north-central zones. The presence of Nigerien nationals in both cases reflects the transnational character of the networks being prosecuted, a challenge that courtroom convictions alone, however significant, cannot fully resolve.
Death sentences and 25-year prison terms send a message. Whether that message reaches the networks still operating across the border is a question that belongs to intelligence and diplomacy as much as it does to the courts.
