Convicted terrorist, Kabiru Umar, popularly known as Kabiru Sokoto, has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge his 2013 conviction and life sentence over terrorism-related offences.
Fresh court documents obtained by Sunday PUNCH showed that Umar, through his lawyers, Don Akaegbu & Company, filed a motion dated May 13, 2026, seeking an extension of time to appeal the judgment delivered by Justice A.F.A. Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on December 20, 2013.
Umar maintained that he was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The application asked the appellate court for permission to file his notice of appeal out of time and for the notice already filed to be deemed properly filed and served.
He was convicted on a two-count charge relating to alleged facilitation of terrorist acts and failure to disclose information connected to a terrorist incident.
In the application, Umar’s lawyers argued that the delay in filing the appeal resulted from circumstances beyond his control.
According to the filing, the convict had been moved between multiple custodial centres across different states, making access to legal representation difficult.
The application further stated that two lawyers previously engaged to handle the appeal died before completing the process.
“The Applicant was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 20th December, 2013. The Applicant has been continuously incarcerated since then,” part of the court filing read.
“The Applicant was moved across several custodial centres across different states, making access to counsel extremely difficult.”
An affidavit sworn by Umar’s nephew, Lawal Suleiman, stated that the family only located the convict in March 2026 at the Maximum Security Custodial Facility in Kirikiri, Lagos.
Suleiman claimed that repeated prison transfers disrupted communication between Umar and his relatives in Sokoto State.
The family also alleged that his health had deteriorated significantly during his years in custody.
The proposed appeal questioned the legal foundation of the conviction.
According to the defence, the trial court wrongly relied on provisions of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act instead of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011.
The lawyers argued that the EFCC Act deals mainly with financial and economic crimes and should not have formed the basis of a terrorism conviction.
The appeal also challenged the admissibility and voluntariness of Umar’s confessional statement marked Exhibit KUKS1.
The defence claimed that the statement was allegedly written by an investigating police officer in a question-and-answer format rather than freely narrated by the defendant.
In a statement accompanying the court documents, Umar’s legal team insisted that he was not convicted for masterminding the 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State.
According to the lawyers, the charges against him related only to alleged possession of information about the bombing and failure to disclose it to authorities.
“The distinction between direct participation and alleged prior knowledge is significant in law and forms a central issue in the pending appeal,” the statement added.
Despite his incarceration, Umar was said to have obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
He is asking the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court and discharge and acquit him on all counts.
The application has already been served on the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, although no hearing date has been fixed.