The Department of State Services (DSS) has re-arrested a wanted terrorist, Abdulazeez Obadaki, one of the inmates who escaped during the July 2022 attack on the Kuje Correctional Centre in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The News Chronicle gathered that more than 800 inmates, including high-profile Boko Haram and Ansaru suspects, had earlier fled the facility after insurgents launched a coordinated assault on the prison.
Obadaki, a member of the Ansaru terrorist network, is accused of orchestrating deadly bank robberies in Uromi, Edo State, and the fatal shooting at Deeper Life College, Okene, Kogi State, both carried out in 2022.
Security sources confirmed that DSS operatives captured him on Friday morning in an intelligence-driven operation.
His arrest comes months after National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, announced the capture of two top Ansaru commanders believed to be the masterminds of the Kuje prison break. The suspects—Mahmud Usman (aka Abu Bara’a), the group’s self-proclaimed Emir, and Mahmud al-Nigeri (aka Malam Mamuda), his deputy—were apprehended between May and July.
Ribadu said the combined operations, involving the military, intelligence services and other security stakeholders, “decapitated the leadership” of the Al-Qaeda-linked terror cell. Both men had been on Nigeria’s most-wanted list for years.
The raids targeted Ansaru hideouts in and around Kainji National Park, spanning Niger and Kwara States, with operational links extending into the Republic of Benin.
The duo had been implicated in several high-profile attacks, including the 2022 Kuje prison break, the attack on a Niger uranium facility, the 2013 abduction of French engineer Francis Collomp, the 2019 kidnapping of Musa Uba (Magajin Garin Daura), and the kidnapping of the Emir of Wawa.
Obadaki’s capture is seen as another major blow to Ansaru’s operational network.
