FG Puts Terror Convictions At 1,721 As Troops Report 1,597 Neutralised
Nearly nine years after Nigeria opened its first mass trial of Boko Haram suspects inside a remote military base in Niger State, the Federal Government has put a fresh figure to the scale of that effort: 1,721 convictions for terrorism and related offences, with more than half of them secured in a single year.
The disclosure came on Thursday in Abuja, where the Director of Legal Services in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Zakari Mijinyawa, addressed a joint security briefing attended by spokespersons of the defence, security and law enforcement agencies. He described the mass trial programme as a central plank of the government’s push to bring terrorism cases before the courts rather than leaving them solely to the military.
“The Federal Government has continued to strengthen the administration of criminal justice in terrorism cases through its mass trial programme, a coordinated initiative involving the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Judiciary, security and law enforcement agencies, and international partners,” Mijinyawa said. “Since the commencement of the programme in October 2017, 10 phases of mass trials have been successfully conducted, resulting in 1,721 convictions for terrorism and related offences.”
The numbers he provided tell the story of a process that moved in fits and starts. The first three phases, held between 2017 and 2018 at Wawa Cantonment in Kainji, Niger State, produced 366 convictions alongside 882 discharges, five acquittals and 61 adjourned cases. According to Mijinyawa, the programme then went quiet for close to five years before resuming in 2023 with Phase Four, which secured only 14 convictions.
Momentum returned in 2024. Phases Five and Six delivered 351 convictions in cases that, by his account, ranged from terrorism financing to international crimes and sexual and gender based violence. “During the same period, eight defendants were discharged, while three defendants were referred for medical or mental health evaluation,” he said. Phases Seven and Eight, conducted in 2025, added a further 125 convictions.
The decisive shift, he noted, came this year. Phases Nine and Ten, held at the Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja, produced 865 convictions, made up of 386 in Phase Nine and 479 in Phase Ten, along with 28 discharges, one acquittal and 224 adjourned cases.
“A notable milestone of the programme is that the 865 convictions secured in 2026 account for more than half (50.3 per cent) of all terrorism related convictions recorded since the programme commenced in 2017,” Mijinyawa stated. “This also exceeds the combined total of 856 convictions secured during the preceding nine years (2017 to 2025).”
He was careful to frame the exercise as more than a conviction count. “The programme has also ensured that defendants against whom the prosecution did not establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt were discharged or acquitted, demonstrating the government’s commitment to due process, the rule of law, and fair trial standards,” he said, adding that such outcomes “underscore our commitment to fair trial standards and the rule of law.”
The programme Mijinyawa was defending carries a complicated history. When the first phase opened in October 2017, roughly 575 defendants were arraigned in proceedings that were largely closed to the public. The secrecy drew early criticism from rights organisations and from United Nations bodies, which raised concerns about fair trial and due process.
Subsequent rounds at Wawa Cantonment in 2018 were opened to a limited number of monitors. Human Rights Watch, which observed one of those sessions, and the Institute for Security Studies both documented recurring problems, including weak investigations, arbitrary arrests, prolonged pre trial detention and limited access to legal aid. At the time, official and independent estimates suggested that thousands of suspects, some held since the insurgency escalated after 2013, were still awaiting trial, with the Ministry of Justice indicating that several thousand cases remained in the pipeline.
The trials also unfolded against real security risks. In October 2022, insurgents attempted to storm the Wawa cantonment, which housed hundreds of detained suspects, in a raid the military said it repelled. The programme itself was revived under the current National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who announced in 2024 that the prosecution of detainees in Kainji had resumed, this time with a stated emphasis on aligning the process with constitutional safeguards. Elements of that wider strategy, including deradicalisation and reintegration through Operation Safe Corridor, have continued alongside the courtroom proceedings.
The conviction figures were presented within a broader account of security operations for the first half of 2026. The Defence Headquarters said troops neutralised 1,597 terrorists and insurgents, rescued 1,516 kidnapped victims and conducted 14,221 operations across the country between January and June.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General Samaila Uba, who was represented at the briefing by Group Captain Kabiru Ali, said the missions spanned land, air and maritime operations. According to him, troops recovered 451 firearms, 16,726 rounds of ammunition, and 161 explosives and improvised explosive devices, which he said had significantly degraded the operational capacity of armed groups.
He listed the affected areas as Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Katsina, Kwara, Zamfara, Sokoto, Plateau, Benue, Niger, Oyo and Kaduna states. Within that period, he said, 412 Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters were neutralised, 332 terrorists arrested, 261 kidnapped victims rescued from terrorist enclaves and 132 insurgents surrendered, while 31 improvised explosive devices were safely detonated.
Beyond kinetic operations, Uba pointed to efforts at winning public trust, citing 33 peacebuilding initiatives, 13 public sensitisation campaigns and 33 engagements with traditional and religious leaders. He added that the military issued 593 press releases, countered 15 cases of misinformation and released 10 public advisories during the period.
“We remain committed to sustaining operations against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, separatist violence and crude oil theft across the country,” he said, appealing to Nigerians to supply timely and credible intelligence.
The Nigeria Police Force also gave an account of its first half activities. The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Iniedu Okokon, said intelligence led policing had allowed operatives to dismantle several criminal networks during the period.
He said the Force Intelligence Department’s Intelligence Response Team arrested 50 suspects linked to terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery, recovering 17 rifles, an anti aircraft launcher and 111 rounds of ammunition. According to him, the police dismantled a 33 member criminal network involved in terrorism, cattle rustling and violent attacks in Kwara State, and arrested suspects connected to the killing of three police officers in Taraba State.
He also disclosed that operatives rescued a kidnapped woman and her 12 year old twin sons during an operation on June 6, after neutralising two kidnappers and recovering two firearms. Improved border surveillance, he added, led to the interception of 181 rounds of ammunition along the Abuja to Kaduna corridor, while collaboration with INTERPOL strengthened action against transnational crime. In a separate case, he said the police broke up a railway vandalism syndicate and recovered about 60 tonnes of vandalised railway materials valued at roughly N400 million.
The government’s presentation frames 2026 as a breakthrough year, both in court and in the field. Yet the same records show a system still carrying a heavy load. The 224 cases adjourned in this year’s phases alone point to a docket that is far from cleared, and the history of the programme suggests that the pace of prosecution has depended heavily on political will and institutional coordination that have not always held steady.
For now, the authorities are presenting the twin tracks of prosecution and military operations as evidence of a strategy that is beginning to yield measurable results. Whether the momentum recorded in the ninth and tenth phases can be sustained, and whether it can be matched by the fair trial standards the government says it is upholding, is likely to remain a live question as further phases are scheduled.