LAGOS: A second man has been jailed for his part in the mass kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, more than four years ago, the government said on Thursday.
Banzana Yusuf, from the northern state of Kano, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “planning and kidnapping” the students, a statement said.
No further details were given about his age, identity, the exact charges, the circumstances of his arrest or what was said in court.
The first conviction was in February, when Haruna Yahaya, 35, admitted involvement in the abduction and was given two 15-year jail sentences.
Both Yahaya and Yusuf were among 1,669 Boko Haram suspects brought before four special civilian courts at a military barracks in Kainji, in Niger state.
A total of 276 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok on April 14, 2014. Fifty seven escaped in the immediate aftermath.
Since then, 107 have either been found or released as part of a government deal with the Islamist militants.
Nigeria has been criticised for arbitrarily arresting civilians in the remote northeast and holding them, often in unsanitary conditions, for years without access to lawyers.
Trials began last October but with the media and public banned from attending, prompting fresh criticism about due process.
—AFP
