Nigeria jails 44 people for involvement in Boko Haram terrorism

Nigeria has jailed 44 people with terms of up to 30 years for funding terrorist activities, a spokesman for a counterterrorism agency said on Saturday.

The convicted were among 54 suspects arraigned in four specially-constituted civilian courts set up at a military base in the town of Kainji in central Niger state, Abu Michael, a spokesman for Nigeria's counterterrorism centre said in a statement. The trial of the remaining 10 cases was adjourned to a later date, he said.

On Wednesday, Nigeria resumed trials of the suspects seven years after it suspended prosecution of over 1,000 people suspected of ties with the Boko Haram terrorist group, which has been unleashing violence since 2009.

"The verdicts delivered from the trials resulted in prison sentences ranging from 10 to 30 years, all to be served with hard labour," Michael said.

"With the latest convictions, Nigeria has now secured a total of 785 cases involving terrorism financing and other terrorism-related offences," said the statement.

Beyond Nigeria

The Boko Haram violence, which started in northeastern Nigeria, has spilled over into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing millions of others.

In October 2017, Nigeria began mass trials of the suspected terrorists, more than eight years after the start of the violence.

Thousands of Boko Haram terrorists and their families have surrendered over the years as the military intensified operations.

That phase of the trials, which lasted five months, saw the convictions of 200 members of the Boko Haram terrorist group with sentencing ranging from "death penalty and life imprisonment to prison terms of 20 to 70 years," Michael said.

The offences for the convictions included attacks on women and children, the destruction of religious sites, the killing of civilians, and the abduction of women and children.