The Presidency has strongly defended the reported killing of senior Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, declaring that the latest Nigerian-American counterterrorism operation was backed by months of intensive intelligence and leaves “no ambiguity” about the insurgent leader’s fate.
In a State House press statement issued on May 16, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said public skepticism surrounding the operation reflects a misunderstanding of the complex realities of modern counterterrorism warfare.
According to the statement, critics who questioned the authenticity of Al-Manuki’s reported elimination were relying on outdated assumptions linked to a previous 2024 military assessment that may have mistakenly identified another insurgent commander during operations in Kaduna’s Birnin Gwari forest.
Security officials now clarify that the earlier report was likely a case of mistaken identity, noting that Birnin Gwari was never within Al-Manuki’s established operational territory.
This latest operation, however, was described as fundamentally different.
Intelligence sources disclosed that Al-Manuki had been under sustained surveillance since December 2025 through prolonged Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operations, including communications monitoring, phone intercepts, digital tracking, and human intelligence networks.
Rather than an impulsive battlefield strike, officials say the mission involved months of coordinated efforts aimed initially at capturing the ISWAP commander alive, with surveillance reportedly extending across multiple locations, including Abuja and Maiduguri.
The final strike, authorities insist, followed extensive multi-source verification, target validation, and precision planning before authorization.
“This time, there is no ambiguity,” security officials reportedly stated, emphasizing that the operation met significantly higher intelligence thresholds than previous insurgency-related assessments.
The Presidency also cautioned against using past global intelligence miscalculations such as premature reports surrounding ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Boko Haram’s Abubakar Shekau to discredit current verified operations.
Instead, officials argued that such historical precedents underscore the inherent challenges of asymmetric warfare, where terrorist leaders frequently use aliases, fragmented identities, and civilian-populated terrain to evade detection.
Onanuga warned that prematurely dismissing credible military successes risks undermining operational morale, public trust, and the strategic messaging necessary for sustained counterinsurgency efforts.
He stressed that Nigeria’s armed forces, working closely with foreign intelligence partners, continue to operate within one of the world’s most difficult security environments, requiring exceptionally rigorous confirmation standards before public announcements are made.
For the Presidency, the operation marks a major intelligence-driven victory against ISWAP and reinforces Nigeria’s expanding security cooperation with international allies.
Military authorities remain adamant: Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, one of ISWAP’s senior operational figures, has been successfully neutralized and this time, they say, they are “100 per cent certain.”
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