The Northern Ethnic Youth Group Assembly (NEYGA) has praised the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for confirming the capture of two of Nigeria’s most-wanted terrorist leaders.
At a press conference in Abuja on Saturday, the NSA announced the arrest of the top leadership of the Ansaru terrorist organisation—also known as Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, Nigeria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate—and the Mahmudawa terrorist group.
The captured figures include Amir Mahmud Mohammed Usman, alias Abu Baraa, and the Deputy Amir, Marmuda.
Media outlets had been awash with reports of the journalists of their capture by the DSS, although the agency neither confirmed nor denied these speculations.
Last Tuesday, the first government official to confirm the captures was Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago, who lauded President Bola Tinubu’s sweeping military and security reforms, especially the appointment of competent leadership across the relevant agencies, and specifically commended the DSS for apprehending the two most-wanted terrorists.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja, NEYGA expressed approval of the NSA for publicly addressing a security concern that had affected much of Northern Nigeria.
The group highlighted the NSA’s reference to the intelligence-led nature of the operation—weeks of surveillance, tracking, and the deployment of human assets—and noted that this corroborated both Governor Bago’s statement and reports from various community sources that the DSS had successfully carried out a covert mission to apprehend the terror kingpins.
The statement, signed by NEYGA spokesperson Ibrahim Dan-Musa, emphasised that as an organisation with a vested interest in events across Northern Nigeria, they have “been consistent in observing the new approach of covertness and studied silence by the new DSS leadership that has been working tirelessly to rid our region of insecurity.”
They praised this brand of DSS leadership for “not interested in self-adulation or self-praise, but in results. Even when it was clear… that the DSS was behind these security gains, the leadership of this security service refused to take the credit. We are pleased to note that this is in line with the DG’s promise on assumption of office to return the Service to covertness.”
Regarding DSS Director General Mr. Tosin Ajayi—who was present at the press briefing—NEYGA added: “We are particularly pleased that, even after the NSA mentioned several times that the feat was a result of intelligence-led operations, the DSS Director General… did not behave like someone whose agency has just recorded a major milestone in the global war on terror.”
The statement also recalled Ajayi’s earlier coordination of a covert rescue mission in 2009, when he was Assistant Director in charge of Operations in Kaduna. Ajayi led the operation that rescued Julie Ann Mulligan, a Canadian national kidnapped during a Rotary International exchange programme. Surveillance and human assets located Mulligan in a village near Kaduna municipal without the use of force or ransom and with no casualties. Governments of Canada and Kaduna State, along with Rotary International, publicly commended the DSS for that extraordinary effort.
