The Presidency on Saturday defended the joint Nigeria-United States military operation that reportedly killed ISWAP commander, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, insisting the mission was intelligence-driven and backed by months of coordinated surveillance efforts.
Responding to controversies surrounding the reported killing of the insurgent leader, presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said the operation followed prolonged Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) activities supported by communications monitoring and phone intercepts spanning more than six months.
According to the Presidency, the latest operation was significantly different from an earlier 2024 report that mistakenly listed Al-Manuki among insurgents reportedly killed during operations in Kaduna State.
Onanuga explained that the earlier claim was a case of mistaken identity arising from the complexities of counterinsurgency operations.
“It is acknowledged within military and intelligence circles that Al-Manuki’s name had appeared among lists of suspected ISWAP/Boko Haram commanders reportedly killed in 2024 during operations around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State,” the statement said.
“However, security officials now clarify that the earlier listing was a case of mistaken identity or misattribution in the fog of sustained counterinsurgency operations.”
The Presidency stressed that security and intelligence authorities are now “100 per cent certain” about Al-Manuki’s elimination.
According to Onanuga, intelligence later confirmed that the Birnin Gwari operational theatre was never within Al-Manuki’s established area of activity, thereby discrediting the earlier assessment.
“This time, however, security and military authorities maintain a far higher level of confidence,” the statement added.
The Presidency disclosed that intelligence tracking of the ISWAP commander began as far back as December 2025 through a combination of digital surveillance, human intelligence, and communications intercepts.
Security sources reportedly monitored Al-Manuki’s movements across several locations in northern Nigeria, including Abuja and Maiduguri, before the final operation was authorised.
According to the statement, authorities initially aimed to capture him alive, which accounted for the prolonged surveillance and monitoring efforts.
“The intelligence trail did not emerge overnight. Rather, it was built over months of persistent tracking, digital surveillance, and human intelligence inputs to map Al-Manuki’s movements across key locations in northern Nigeria,” Onanuga said.
The Presidency noted that unlike previous operations, the latest strike involved multiple layers of target validation and intelligence confirmation before execution.
Officials said the mission was conducted with a “significantly higher degree of precision” and extensive cross-verification procedures.
The statement also dismissed attempts to compare the development with past incidents where terrorist leaders were wrongly declared dead, arguing that such occurrences are not unusual in complex asymmetric warfare environments.
“Modern counterterrorism history is replete with similar cases of initial uncertainty, particularly in complex environments where insurgent networks operate across difficult terrain and rely heavily on aliases, fragmented identities, and misinformation,” the statement said.
The Presidency warned that dismissing credible military operations without evidence could undermine public confidence and weaken counterterrorism efforts.
It maintained that Nigerian security forces, working with international partners, continue to operate in one of the world’s most challenging insurgency theatres.
“For now, military authorities remain firm in their position: The latest operation that targeted Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki represents a validated, intelligence-driven success against a senior figure of the Islamic State network,” the statement added.
Deji Elumoye
