A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced ISWAP commander Hussaini Ismaila, also known as Mai Tangaran, to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to coordinating multiple deadly terror attacks across Kano State in 2012.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has convicted and sentenced notorious ISWAP commander Hussaini Ismaila, popularly called Mai Tangaran, to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to multiple terrorism charges linked to coordinated attacks across Kano State in 2012. The DSS, which arrested him on August 31, 2017 in Tsamiyya Babba Village, told the court that he orchestrated assaults on key security locations including the Police Headquarters in Bompai, the Mobile Police Base along Kabuga Road, Pharm Centre Police Station, and Angwa Uku Police Station attacks that left many people injured during a deadly wave of extremist violence.
After years of trial delays and a trial-within-trial to test the voluntariness of his statements, Ismaila changed his plea to guilty following the testimony of the fifth prosecution witness. His lawyer asked for leniency, saying the convict regretted “ever being involved in terrorism,” but Justice Emeka Nwite convicted him on all four counts and ordered that the 20-year term run concurrently from his arrest date, with deradicalisation mandated after completion of the sentence.
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