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We haven’t seen anything like it since 9/11! *US speaks on latest Nigerian raid
“Not only that, from that raid we brought home, we needed an extra plane to bring home all the electronic material that we captured in those camps. The haul was three times bigger than any enemy electronics haul since 9-11.”
These were the exact words with which the United States, described the magnitude of the operation it carried out in Nigeria recently, leading to the killing of multiple terrorist leaders and the size of equipment seized from the camp they struck during the raid.
Sebastian Gorka, United States Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council, who gave the account of the operation, said the US government, had to deploy an additional aircraft to evacuate electronic devices and other intelligence materials seized during the counter-terrorism operation, due to the sheer size of the equipment.
Gorka, who revealed that US intelligence agencies had begun to examine the devices confiscated to gain deeper insight into the communications, networks and operational methods of the Islamic State (ISIS), told Marissa Streit, the CEO of PragerU, a US conservative media organization that the Nigerian mission was one of the most significant counter-terrorism successes recorded by the administration.
He said that particular operation resulted in the killing of 199 jihadists in a single raid, which he described as the largest enemy neutralisation in a single counter-terrorism operation since the September 11 attacks.
“I can talk about this because it has been declassified. The President is not…going around the world like some lunatic neocon saying, ‘we will turn the world into America’.
“But if you’re threatening Americans, or if you’re targeting Christians, he has a very strong message to send to you, whether it was his Christmas Day strike, or three weeks ago, what we did in Nigeria.
“Three weeks ago in Nigeria, I watched it live from the Situation Room. It was like being in a Tom Clancy movie, but it’s better because it’s real. I watched our operatives kill 199 jihadists in one operation.
“Now, why is this important? That is the biggest neutralisation enemy killed in action since September the 11th. 199 jihadists who will not harm Americans again.
“That is priceless, because now our experts are taking apart all of that information, looking at how ISIS is communicating with each other. We are so back in the game of counterterrorism. It is just superlative to watch our professionals,” he explained.
Since late 2025, the United States has significantly expanded security cooperation with Nigeria, shifting from largely advisory engagement to a more structured partnership centred on intelligence sharing, counterterrorism operations, institutional reform and military capacity building.
THISDAY recalled that the renewed engagement gathered pace after National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu led a high-level delegation to Washington in November 2025, where both countries agreed to establish a Nigeria-US Joint Working Group on security.
Apart from the Christmas day bombing of terrorists’ enclaves in the north, one of the most significant achievements was a joint Nigerian-U.S. operation in Borno State that eliminated several Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants, including the group’s Deputy Leader, Abu Bakr al-Mainuki.
But the US counter-terrorism chief added that beyond the casualties inflicted on the terrorist group, the intelligence recovered from the operation could prove even more consequential.
The White House official ieclosed further that the electronic devices were currently being analysed by American intelligence agencies as part of efforts to dismantle ISIS networks and prevent future attacks against the United States and its allies.
Gorka argued that the operation reflected a more aggressive counter-terrorism posture under President Trump, insisting that the administration had abandoned what he described as the policy of “watching and waiting.”
He said that in the administration’s first 15 months, American forces killed about 1,031 jihadists globally while also securing the freedom of 106 American hostages without paying ransom. “We are not watching and waiting. We are dealing death to bad people,” he said.
Gorka said the threat posed by extremist groups remained real and pointed to attacks carried out by ISIS and other jihadist organisations across the world, including against Christian communities in Nigeria.
“If you’re threatening Americans, or if you’re targeting Christians because they’re Christians, he has a very strong message to send to you,” Gorka said in reference to President Trump.
Speaking specifically about Africa, Gorka argued that the continent has increasingly become a target for ISIS because of the existence of vast ungoverned territories where extremist groups can regroup after suffering defeats elsewhere.
He stated that many ISIS fighters displaced from Iraq and Syria during Trump’s first administration relocated to Africa after the organisation’s so-called caliphate collapsed.
“Terrorists need ungoverned space. They need somewhere where they can hang out and rebuild. Africa has a lot of ungoverned space. That’s why I focus a lot of my attention on that region of the world where ISIS is trying to reconstitute a caliphate,” he said.
While acknowledging that many African conflicts have local roots involving resources, ethnicity and communal disputes, Gorka argued that ISIS and similar organisations attempt to exploit those grievances by imposing extremist ideologies on existing conflicts.
He said the United States was working with African governments to prevent that strategy from succeeding.
Gorka submitted that the relations between Washington and several African countries had improved significantly under the current administration after what he described as ideological disagreements during the previous U.S. administration.
“We’ve been working intelligently. I sent a team of mine out to Africa to some key states and said, look, we’re not here to tell you what to believe in. But if you’ve got a terrorist threat, that is a threat to us. Let’s work together,” he stated.
Gorka also defended Trump’s decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, describing the group as the ideological foundation of several modern jihadist movements, including ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hamas.
He argued that the designation represented one of the administration’s most consequential counter-terrorism decisions and should have been implemented decades earlier.
The official further expressed concern over what he described as the continued threat posed by radical Islamist organisations to both Africa and the United States, warning that extremist groups could exploit migration routes and weak border controls to expand their reach.
He nevertheless praised ongoing efforts by senior U.S. homeland security officials to tighten border security and disrupt terrorist and cartel activities.
Detailing how the plan to move into Nigeria was arrived at, Gorka stated that Trump never wasted time before approving the exercise immediately it was brought to his attention.
“We told the President, this man has killed Americans and is planning to kill Americans. And we’ve been watching him for a year and a half under the Biden administration.
“The President (Trump) looked up from the resident desk, he looked at us and said, What do you mean we’re watching him? Kill him.
“And as a result, he took out his iconic sharpie pen. He ticked the ‘go box’ on the operational orders we had in front of him. Less than 30 hours later, I’m in the situation room under the West Wing with the National Security Advisor with my colleague from my counterterrorism team.
“And we watched like clockwork at exactly 8.45 in the morning on Saturday, this ISIS leader being permanently removed from the battlefield. The President then declassified the video of that strike. He posted it on Truth Social, it went 120 million likes in like eight hours,” he added.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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