Seven suspected commanders of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, were arrested at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Katsina after returning from the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed the arrests on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, shortly after President Bola Tinubu signed the National Identity Management Commission Act 2026 into law.
According to the minister, the suspects were picked up last Thursday at the Katsina airport upon their return from Mecca and were handed over to the Department of State Services. “I’m happy to tell you that even last week, Thursday, seven of the known commanders of Boko Haram and ISWAP, at the point of coming back from Mecca, were arrested in Katsina at the airport and were handed over to the DSS,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He said the operation was made possible by Nigeria’s integrated digital identity system. The minister explained that the arrests followed the integration of the National Identity Management Commission database with the Nigeria Immigration Service database and its connection to Interpol.
“This is only possible because NIMC’s ID is already connected with the immigration database, and it’s already speaking to even the Interpol 24/7, and we have been able to automate this,” he stated.
Tunji-Ojo said the incident also addressed concerns earlier raised about terrorists travelling abroad undetected. “I know, sometime ago, the Senate President was alarmed by how some terrorists went on pilgrimage, wondering how they crossed our borders. We inherited a fractured system,” he said.
The Federal Government described the operation as one of the most significant successes recorded through the integrated identity management system. The minister added that the newly signed NIMC Act would further strengthen the country’s security architecture by accelerating the harmonisation of identity databases and improving inter-agency collaboration to combat terrorism, identity theft and other security threats.
The identities of the suspects have not been released, and it was not stated whether they were on any security watchlist before embarking on the pilgrimage.
