The Presidency has defended reports surrounding the elimination of a senior Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, insisting that the latest joint Nigerian-American counterterrorism operation was intelligence-driven and accurately executed. In a statement on Saturday, May 16, by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and……
The Presidency has defended reports surrounding the elimination of a senior Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, insisting that the latest joint Nigerian-American counterterrorism operation was intelligence-driven and accurately executed.
In a statement on Saturday, May 16, by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency dismissed doubts raised over the operation, describing criticisms as premature and disconnected from the realities of modern counterinsurgency warfare.
According to the statement, controversy over the reported killing of the insurgent leader stemmed from earlier reports in 2024 which had also listed Al-Manuki, also known as Abu-Mainok or Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki, among terrorists allegedly killed during operations around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State.
However, security sources cited in the statement explained that the earlier report was a case of mistaken identity and flawed battlefield attribution.
The Presidency noted that intelligence findings later showed that Birnin Gwari was never within Al-Manuki’s established operational territory, thereby undermining the accuracy of the previous assessment.
It stressed that the latest operation differed significantly from the earlier report, stating that security agencies carried out months of surveillance and intelligence gathering before the strike was authorised.
According to the statement, intelligence and military operatives relied on prolonged Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operations, communications monitoring and phone intercepts dating back to December 2025.
The Presidency said security agencies tracked the ISWAP commander across several northern locations, including Abuja and Maiduguri, while initially considering the possibility of capturing him alive.
“The intelligence trail, according to sources familiar with the mission, 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,” the statement read.
It added that the operation was executed with “a significantly higher degree of precision, target validation, and multi-source intelligence confirmation” compared to earlier missions.
Officials involved in the operation reportedly insisted that “this time, there is no ambiguity.”
Responding to comparisons with previous counterterrorism cases where insurgent leaders were wrongly declared dead, the Presidency argued that such situations were common in asymmetric warfare involving insurgent groups operating with aliases, false identities and cross-border networks.
The statement referenced global counterterrorism experiences, including earlier inaccurate reports about former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before his death was eventually confirmed years later.
According to the Presidency, such incidents reflect the complexities of intelligence operations rather than outright operational failure.
The statement also warned against dismissing military successes without sufficient evidence, saying such reactions could weaken public confidence and affect operational morale.
“Undermining credible joint operations, particularly those involving Nigerian forces and international partners, risks weakening public confidence in ongoing counterterrorism efforts,” the statement added.
The Presidency maintained that Nigerian security forces and foreign intelligence partners operate under difficult conditions and usually subject intelligence findings to rigorous verification before making public declarations.
“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. And in their words, this time, they are ‘100 per cent certain,’” the statement said.