Troops of the Nigerian Armed Forces have neutralised a senior Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, chief, Abdussamad Ohida, throughout a joint safety operation in Owo Forest, Ondo State.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Michael Onoja, disclosed this on Friday throughout a month-to-month operational briefing with Defence Correspondents, the place he introduced the navy’s operational achievements throughout varied theatres of operation.
Onoja stated the operation was carried out on October 2, 2026, by a mixed staff of safety forces concentrating on terrorist components working in the forest.
According to him, some terrorists had been neutralised in the course of the operation, together with Ohida, who was recognized because the deputy to the ISWAP chief in Central Nigeria.
He defined that Ohida had assumed management of the group following the arrest of its former chief by the Department of State Services, DSS, in 2023.
The Defence spokesman disclosed that the deceased terrorist chief was concerned in planning large-scale assaults in opposition to civilians in a number of states in the course of the forthcoming festive season.
He described Ohida’s neutralisation as a significant operational breakthrough, noting that it might deal a major blow to ISWAP’s efforts to increase its operational presence in Nigeria.
The operation kinds a part of the Armed Forces’ sustained efforts to dismantle terrorist networks, disrupt their management buildings and stop deliberate assaults in opposition to harmless residents, significantly forward of the festive season.
