The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Thursday, sentenced to life imprisonment three terrorists put on trial by the Department of State Services (DSS) for being members of proscribed Darul Salam terrorist group.
The convicted terrorists are Abdulrazak Umar, alias Abu Khalifa/Abu Khalid, Yunusa Musa, alias Yunusa Bin Musa and Shamsu Adamu Sani, alias Abu Itisar.
The trio are professed members of Darul Salam, an affiliate of Jamadadtu Asarul Muslima Fi Bilandis Sudan (Ansaru), a proscribed terrorist group.
The conviction by Justice Salim Ibrahim of the Federal High Court in Abuja, followed their admission of being associates of bandits that kidnapped school children and teachers at Orire local government area of Oyo state.
Although they were put on trial on 10 count charges, they pleaded guilty to counts 4 and 6 among others, a development that prompted the judge to invoke maximum punishment of life imprisonment against them.
Aside from being members of the proscribed terrorist group, the three convicts who were brought to court amid tight security by operatives of the DSS, confessed to concealing information on the abduction of the school children and their teachers.
They admitted that those who carried out the school children and teachers’ abduction were their associates, and that they had knowledge of the banditry but kept it to themselves.
Apart from counts 4 and 6, they jointly pleaded guilty to, the first defendant, Abdulrazak Umar, personally admitted guilt to counts 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Umar admitted training and passing instructions to terrorists, used a WhatsApp group to propagate radical Islamic ideology, and used the same platform to incite people to imbibe radical ideology.
After their admission of guilt to the major counts of the charges, the review of facts was carried out by a DSS operative who narrated how their statements were recorded in the presence of their lawyers.
The operative code named: “Witness AA”, further informed the court that the convicted persons made confessions voluntarily in the presence of the lawyers.
The investigation reports by DSS forwarded to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice was tendered and admitted as exhibit by court.
Their lead counsel, Mr A. A. Shetima at the proceedings pleaded passionately with the judge to be lenient with his clients.