Boko Haram lead bags 60 years jail term

A Federal High Court at Wawa Cantonment, Kainji, Niger State, has jailed a Boko Haram suicide bomber, Abba Umar, 22, for 60 years.

Umar is Kanuri from Shuare, Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

The unrepentant suicide bomber doubles as a commander of the sect.

He was jailed Tuesday for his role in several operations of the group.

Before he was sentenced, Umar had confessed being a member of Boko Haram and a sect member of the Jama’tu ahli sunna li da’awatu wa Jihad, meaning, ‘people who follow the path of the Prophet for preaching and jihad’.

Speaking in Hausa, Umar pleaded not guilty but vowed to return to Sambisa forest if he was released to continue his terror acts.

The sect commander was charged via case file marked FHC/KAINJI/CR/108/18; FRN VS Abba Umar.

Umar was arrested when he was 18 years old when he carried out a botched attack in 2014.

On the fateful day, his mission was foiled by members of the Joint Task Force (JTF) as he drove a heavily laden Honda Odyssey Bus with explosive devices against the wall of Government Day Pilot Secondary School, Gombe, with the intention to bomb the school.

He admitted all the count charges and emphasised his important role as a commander that takes instructions directly from his leader.

The sect commander who showed no remorse claimed that he was initiated into the group by his elder brother and subsequently moved to the Sambisa forest.

He nevertheless remained adamant to his ideology despite all the efforts by the defence counsel to convince him to have a change of heart.

The convict admitted to all the written and confessional statements as well as pictures tendered as exhibits before the court, confessing to leading several other attacks.

The judge, having weighed options could not but convict him on all the five-count charges as the sect leader kept on pleading not guilty though he affirmed to have committed all the offences.

All the years of imprisonment are to run concurrently, and to avoid the convict going back to crime, the judge said he would undergo de-radicalisation.

Umar was found guilty of the five-count charges and jailed 15 years for professing to be a member of the sect; 30 years imprisonment for attempting to bomb Government Day Pilot Secondary School, Gombe; 60 years imprisonment for participating in an act of terrorism where he was found with ammunition; 15 years imprisonment for receiving terrorism training in Sambisa forest, and 7 years imprisonment for failing to disclose information about his sect leaders.