A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced a leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Hussaini Ismaila, to 20 years imprisonment for terrorism offences.

Justice Emeka Nwite delivered the sentence on Wednesday after Ismaila, aka Mai Tangaran, pleaded guilty to a four-count terrorism charge brought against him by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Justice Nwite sentenced Ismaila to 15 years on count one and 20 years on counts two, three, and four, which would run concurrently, beginning from his arrest on August 31, 2017.

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The judge also ordered that the Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service confine the convict at any prison of his choice until he had served out his sentence, adding that he must be subjected to both rehabilitation and deradicalization after serving his term, before being reintegrated into society.

Earlier, the prosecution said Ismaila was the coordinator of the 2012 attacks on Police Headquarters in Bompai, Kano State; Mobile Police Base, Kabuga Road, Kano State; Pharm Centre Police Station, Kano State; Angwa Uku Police Station, Kano State, among other places, in which many were either killed or injured.

Shortly after his arrest in 2017, at Tsamiyya Babba Village, Gezewa LGA, Kano State, Ismaila was arraigned on a four-count charge brought under the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.

The trial suffered delays resulting from appeals and the conduct of a trial-within-trial to, among other things, ascertain the voluntariness of the defendant’s extra-judicial statements.

When the trial eventually opened, the prosecution called five witnesses, including two DSS officials and two eyewitnesses to some of the attacks.

Ismaila, who had earlier pleaded not guilty during his arraignment, changed his plea to guilty after the testimony of the fifth prosecution witness.

Subsequently, the defendant’s lawyer, P. B. Onijah from the Legal Aid Council (LAC), pleaded with the court to be lenient with the defendant.

Onijah said Ismaila was remorseful and changed his plea to avoid wasting the court’s time and regretted being involved in terrorism.