The Presidency has rejected claims suggesting that Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, a senior commander of the Islamic State West Africa Province, had previously been killed in an earlier military strike, describing such reports as a case of mistaken identity.
The clarification was issued by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, following public debate over a reported joint operation between Nigeria and the United States that allegedly eliminated the terrorist leader. The operation was announced on Friday night by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a post shared on X on Saturday, Onanuga acknowledged that Al-Manuki’s name had earlier appeared on lists of suspected ISWAP commanders said to have been killed in 2024 during operations around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State.
However, he said intelligence updates have since shown that the earlier reports were inaccurate.
“Security officials now clarify that the earlier listing was a case of mistaken identity or misattribution in the fog of sustained counterinsurgency operations.
Importantly, intelligence now confirms that the Birnin Gwari theatre was never within Al-Manuki’s established operational sphere, which negates the accuracy of the earlier assessment,” Onanuga said.
He further explained that the latest strike was the result of months of intelligence gathering, including surveillance operations and communications monitoring that reportedly began in December 2025.
According to him, security agencies initially intended to capture the ISWAP commander alive, which led to close monitoring of his movements across several locations, including Abuja and Maiduguri, prior to the final operation.
He added that multiple verification processes were completed before authorisation of the strike, stressing that officials were confident in the identity of the target this time.
“In their assessment, ‘this time, there is no ambiguity’,” he added.
He also insisted that authorities were “100 per cent certain” about the target’s identity in the latest operation.
The announcement of the strike was first made by Trump on his Truth Social platform, where he described Al-Manuki as “the most active terrorist in the world” and “second in command of ISIS globally.”
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“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth later confirmed that Al-Manuki served as the senior ISIS General Directorate of Provinces Emir, with responsibilities including attack planning, hostage coordination, and financial management across the Sahel region.
The United States Africa Command also released footage showing targeted airstrikes on high-value ISIS-linked fighters in northeastern Nigeria, backing the account of the operation.
President Bola Tinubu described the joint mission as a significant blow to the Islamic State network, praising the collaboration between Nigerian forces and their U.S. counterparts.
Al-Manuki, also known by several aliases including Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Mainuki and Abubakar Mainok, was born in 1982 in Mainok, Benisheikh, Borno State.
He was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. State Department in June 2023.
He rose within ISWAP ranks after the death of Mamman Nur in 2018 and was believed to be linked to the ISIS al-Furqan network coordinating operations across Nigeria, the Sahel, and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The announcement has, however, triggered public scepticism, with critics referencing past instances where Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was wrongly declared dead multiple times before his confirmed death in 2021.
Responding to such concerns, Onanuga urged caution, noting that modern counterterrorism operations also include cases where initial uncertainty was later corrected, including the death of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He warned that undermining verified joint operations could weaken public confidence, stating: “Undermining credible joint operations, particularly those involving Nigerian forces and international partners, risks weakening public confidence in ongoing counterterrorism efforts,” he said.