But Can Terrorists Be Convicted in Court?
By Mike Odeh James
(JOS)— Nigeria’s secret police and army have foiled a string of attacks on Christians in Plateau State since August. Their arrests now face the hardest test: Prosecution.
The biggest prize may be Mahmoud Adam, a prominent Fulani community leader in Plateau State. The US-based Daily Caller reported on October 2 that Department of State Services (DSS) operatives seized him from his compound in the early hours of September 12. If confirmed, it would be the heaviest blow yet against Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) leadership on the Plateau.
“This is great news for Christians in Nigeria!” U.S. Rep. Riley Moore wrote on X, calling Adam a radical Islamic Fulani terrorist leader.
Nigerian authorities have not confirmed the arrest, announced charges or said where Adam is held.
The Daily Caller also quoted a whistleblower who said Sen. Shehu Buba, then chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, phoned military authorities in 2024 and demanded Adam’s release after an earlier arrest. Adam was freed days later. Buba denies links to armed groups. On September 14, he said he had submitted himself to the DSS, police and Defence Intelligence Agency for investigation.
That history is why the courtroom matters.
Eyes over Riyom
On October 16, The Guardian reported that DSS operatives, backed by the army, foiled a planned attack on Ganchung village in Rim, Riyom County, after drones and cameras spotted men carrying AK-47 and K2 rifles among cattle herders. The DSS has set up technology-driven security camps across Riyom, Mangu and Barkin Ladi counties and plans to extend them to Bokkos.
A record of results
“The secret police have delivered before,” said David Onyilokwu Idah, a director at the International Human Rights Commission in Abuja. He told TruthNigeria the army and the DSS have changed the picture on the Plateau for the better.
Idah pointed to November 2025, when DSS operatives raided a weapons workshop in Mista Ali, Bassa County, and arrested Musa Abubakar, who the agency said confessed to making high-caliber weapons for armed groups attacking Plateau.
Court records show what followed another DSS operation. Between April 3 and 10, 2026, the agency arrested five suspects over the March 28 killing of more than 30 people at Angwan Rukuba in Jos North County. On April 23, the Plateau State government arraigned four of them before the Plateau State High Court for conspiracy to commit terrorism and terrorism. The fifth faces separate charges of culpable homicide and illegal arms dealing. An alleged principal suspect remains at large.
In 2025, the DSS also arraigned nine suspects before the Federal High Court in Abuja over killings in Benue and Plateau, including two men charged over the Yelwata massacre in Benue.
Arrests in the field
Credit Mike Odeh James
Operation Enduring Peace, the army’s Plateau task force, says it arrested 155 suspects across Bauchi, Kaduna and Plateau in September alone, a figure Idah cited.
On August 11, troops of the operation’s Sector 8 forced suspected Fulani Terrorists destroying farmland in Manja Forest, Mangu County, to withdraw, according to the security news platform Zagazola Makama.
On August 24, troops at Sabon Layi in Mangu County arrested two suspected herders after an attack on harvesters left an elderly woman wounded. They were handed to police in Mangu “for further investigation and necessary legal action,” Makama reported.
No Convictions Yet for Yelewata Massacre?
The judiciary has been active in recent times, trying and convicting terrorists in Nigeria. But terrorists who have killed, kidnapped, and destroyed communities in the Middle Belt still await trial.
According to Adam Adakole of Adakson Security Consultancy Services, Takum:
Since 2017, Nigeria has convicted about 2,374 terrorism suspects — 1,721 by July 2026, plus another 653 in the October Abuja trials. Almost all were Boko Haram and ISWAP cases.
Yet, not one person has been publicly convicted of terrorism for a massacre in the Middle Belt.
Nine Fulani leaders are on trial over Yelwata, Benue. Four suspects have been arraigned over Angwan Rukuba, Jos. In Mangu, the suspected mastermind behind the Bin Mper attack remains unnamed and uncharged. Plateau arrests from August to October have yielded no public charges.
“Meanwhile, a church bomber convicted in 2013 has won appeal rights, while five Gwoza Christians have spent 12 years without trial.
“The judiciary is clearing the Northeast but in the Middle Belt terrorists remain unprosecuted, Adakole concluded
Mike Odeh James is a Senior Reporter for TruthNigeria.
