The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has slammed 25-year jail sentences on each of the five persons arrested over their involvement in the November 21, 2025 attack on St. Joseph Catholic Church, Papiri in Niger State.
Daily Trust had reported how gunmen invaded the school and abducted over 300 students and staff.
While about 50 of the students managed to escape, the gunmen marched over 250 of them for days into the Kainji Lake Reserve Forest.
The Department of State Services (DSS) later trailed the suspects and arrested five of them.
They are Yusuf Muhammad (aka Bature), Goni Ibrahim Bindi (aka Goni Mutua), Sani Tukur (aka Danladi), Mubarak Ibrahim, and Musa Alhaji Adamu (aka Gado Banufe).
In one of the arrests, DSS operatives recovered 15 AK-47 rifles and 1,434 rounds of live ammunition concealed in sacks inside a Volkswagen Golf car.
The recovered arms and ammunition were tendered in evidence, after which the court ordered the forfeiture of the vehicle to the Nigerian government.
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On Thursday, Justice Binta Nyako delivered the sentence shortly after the five men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges.
The offences bordered on conspiracy, support for acts of terrorism, and unlawful arms trafficking under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, as well as provisions of the Firearms Act.
The charge sheet stated that the defendants coordinated the movement of weapons between 23rd and 24th April, 2026, transporting 15 AK-103 rifles and 1,434 rounds of ammunition from the Diffa region of the Republic of Niger to a Boko Haram-linked contact operating in Borgu LGA.
The case was linked to members of Boko Haram, who prosecutors said were the intended recipients of the weapons supply network.
The court held that the guilty pleas and evidence presented were sufficient to warrant conviction and handed down the maximum sentences, bringing closure to a case described as one of the most significant terror-related prosecutions in recent years.