At least 44 suspected terrorists are currently facing prosecution in different courts across Nigeria, according to the Department of State Services (DSS).
The agency said the prosecutions span multiple terror-related cases involving high-profile attacks, mass killings, and the operations of extremist networks across the country.
Furthermore, the defendants, according to the DSS, include masterminds of major terrorist operations, members of armed extremist groups, and individuals linked to notorious cells in the North-Central and North-West regions.
Their ongoing trials, spread across several Federal High Courts, mark one of the most extensive waves of counterterrorism prosecutions in recent years.
Among those being tried are two top commanders of Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan (ANSARU), Mahmud Usman and Abubakar Abba, both captured during a major DSS-led counterterrorism operation.
The duo are accused of coordinating terrorist cells, organizing kidnappings, and financing violent campaigns across Nigeria and Their trial is set to continue before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In an official statement on Tuesday, October 4, 2025, the DSS boss, Tosin Ajayi said: “The various arrests and trials of terrorism suspects show that Nigeria’s security agencies have been diligent in dealing with the perpetrators of terror in the country.
“The men we are prosecuting are separate from the hundreds of suspects under the military’s protective custody, whose cases are being handled by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation. In July last year, 125 of the terrorists were convicted.
“We shall continue to make the suspects accountable for disrupting the peace of our country, in consonance with the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, further details from the DSS revealed that those facing trial include Khalid Al-Barnawi, the alleged mastermind of the 2011 bombing of the United Nations Complex in Abuja, which killed 20 people and injured over 70 others.
Al-Barnawi and four others, Mohammed Saleh, Umar Bello (aka Datti), Mohammed Salisu, and Yakubu Nuhu (aka Bello Maishayi), are currently standing trial before Justice Nwite after several procedural delays.
Also in the DSS charge sheets are five men accused of orchestrating the 2022 St. Francis Catholic Church attack in Owo, Ondo State, where over 40 worshippers were killed.
The suspects, Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Abubakar, were arraigned on nine counts of terrorism and have been remanded pending trial.
In another case, the agency disclosed the ongoing prosecution of several suspects linked to the June 2025 Yelewata massacre in Benue State, which left dozens dead and over a hundred injured.
A total of nine defendants are being tried for terrorism and related offences, while two others remain at large.
According to DSS records, the agency has filed six separate terrorism charges in connection with the Benue attacks alone, demonstrating what it described as a “consistent and lawful pursuit of justice against those destabilizing national peace.”
