Former Borno senatorial aspirant Babagana Habeeb received a ten‑year jail term from the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday. Justice Peter Lifu handed down the sentence after finding Habeeb guilty of a single count brought by the Federal Government for aiding terrorism by supplying petroleum products to insurgents.
Habeeb, a fuel dealer operating out of Maiduguri, admitted during his arraignment that he sold fuel in the North‑East, though he contended that his station attendants may have carried out the transactions without his direct involvement. In court he knelt, invoking his two wives and six children and noting that he had spent more than a decade in detention without family contact.
Prosecuting counsel Mr David Kaswe rejected the plea for mercy, arguing that the fuel deliveries enabled attacks that resulted in deaths and displacement, and urged a twenty‑year term. Justice Lifu observed that no evidence linked Habeeb to membership or training in any terrorist group, and that the only proven offence was the sale of fuel to insurgents.
The judge ordered the ten‑year term to be counted from the date of Habeeb's arrest and directed his immediate release after signing a release warrant to facilitate rehabilitation. (NAN) Edited by Sadiya Hamza
The court's decision to count the sentence from Habeeb's arrest, rather than from the sentencing date, effectively acknowledges his prolonged pre‑trial detention while still imposing a decade behind bars.
Justice Lifu's ruling underscores the judiciary's willingness to prosecute business figures who, even indirectly, sustain insurgent operations. By limiting the conviction to fuel sales and rejecting any claim of organisational membership, the judgment isolates commercial support as a distinct legal breach, separate from direct involvement in terrorism.
For ordinary Nigerians, especially those in the North‑East who depend on fuel traders for livelihoods, the case sends a clear warning: commercial activities that aid armed groups will attract severe penalties, potentially curbing informal networks that have long fueled conflict economies.
The outcome fits a broader pattern of recent Nigerian courts targeting the logistical chains of insurgency, reflecting an intensified legal strategy to choke the material support that sustains violent campaigns.
