Court sentences Boko Haram member to death for killing Adamawa, Borno residents

The Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced a Boko Haram member, Auwalu Samaila, to death by hanging.

Justice James Omotosho, in a judgement delivered on Thursday, April 9, 2026, convicted and sentenced Samaila to death after he pleaded guilty to the six counts preferred against him by the federal government.

The judge said: “It is when somebody is remorseful and seek forgiveness with God that he can have mercy from him.

“The convict before me is not remorseful despite a lot of attrocities and lives that had gone from his hand.

“May God have mercy on his soul.”

The federal government, in the charge marked: FHC/KNJ/CR/122/2026, sued Samaila for terrorism-related offences as sole defendant.

In count one, Samaila, who hails from Gulak Village in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, was alleged to have, between 2012 and 2017 in Sabongari Kyambula Village, Gulak LGA of the state, confessed to being a member of Boko Haram, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

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He was also alleged to have participated in the attack at Gombi in Adamawa State where scores of people were killed.

The offence, the prosecution said, was contrary to Section 1(2) of the Terrorism (Prevention Amendment) Act, 2013 and punishable under the same section of the Act.

Justice Omotosho, in separate judgements on Thursday, also convicted and sentenced two Boko Haram terrorists to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to the terrorsim offences.

The two convicts are Shura Abdullahi and Abdulrahman Ari.

The judge equally committed Aisami Kadi, Umaru Usman, and Abdulrahman Hassan, who pleaded guilty to the charges, to different jail terms, ranging between 20 and 21 years in the counts preferred against them by the federal government.