No mercy: Court sentences three Boko Haram terrorists to death by hanging in Sokoto, see details

• A Sokoto High Court sentenced three men to death by hanging after convicting them on terrorism and arms-related charges.

• The court also ordered that assets linked to the convicts be forfeited to the Federal Government.

• The ruling comes as Nigeria intensifies terrorism prosecutions, with hundreds of Boko Haram and ISWAP suspects also facing trial.

Three men have been condemned to death by hanging in Sokoto State, after a High Court found them guilty on charges connected to terrorism and the proliferation of arms.

Justice Bello, who presided over the trial, convicted all three defendants on every count brought against them. Alongside the death sentence, the court ordered that funds and assets traced to the men be handed over to the Federal Government.

The men sentenced are Yusuf Muhammad, who goes by the alias Sallau and holds Nigerien nationality, along with Jabbi Alhaji Yalle and Kabiru Muhammad. DSS operatives attached to the Counter-Terrorism Unit picked up the trio on June 13, 2025, acting on intelligence tied to arms trafficking and cross-border criminal activity.

The case adds to a growing list of terrorism-linked convictions secured in courts across the country in recent weeks. A Federal High Court in Katsina, for instance, condemned Hauwa'u Mukhtar to death days earlier, after DSS operatives caught her allegedly ferrying 438 rounds of ammunition meant for a bandit leader.

Four other men, Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik and Abdulhaleem Idris, were also sentenced to death by a Federal High Court in Abuja, over their roles in the deadly 2022 attack on worshippers in Owo, Ondo State, which left more than 40 people dead.

A Kogi State case followed a similar pattern. Jibrin Halilu was sentenced to death by hanging in Lokoja, after a court convicted him of kidnapping and killing a hotelier in Obajana, a case the DSS also helped prosecute.

Together, these verdicts reflect efforts by the judiciary to work through a long-standing backlog of terrorism cases, many involving suspects held for years following military operations in the North-East and other conflict-hit regions.

Officials have repeatedly pointed to these prosecutions as proof that Nigeria's counter-terrorism strategy is producing results, insisting that consistent convictions help deter future attacks and reinforce public trust in the justice system.

The rulings arrive as the Federal Government pushes ahead with the mass trial of more than 500 suspects tied to Boko Haram and ISWAP, a case already being described as one of the largest terrorism trials in the country's history.

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