By Odita Sunday
Nigeria’s security agencies sustained a coordinated offensive against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, arms trafficking, drug-related organised crime and other threats to national security in July and August 2026, with the Armed Forces conducting 7,062 operations and neutralising 1,487 terrorists and insurgents.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General Samaila Uba, disclosed this at the Joint Security News Briefing in Abuja, saying the military also arrested 354 suspects and rescued 777 kidnapped victims during the reporting period.
According to Uba, the operations were conducted across the six geopolitical zones through coordinated land, air and maritime deployments targeting terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, arms traffickers, oil thieves and other criminal elements.
He said troops recovered 91 firearms, 1,331 rounds of ammunition and 44 Improvised Explosive Devices.
Uba identified the neutralisation of 309 Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province fighters as one of the major achievements of the military during the period, particularly in the North-East.
He said troops also rescued hundreds of persons held in terrorist enclaves, while sustained military pressure disrupted terrorist logistics and operational bases.
“The Armed Forces of Nigeria remain committed to defeating all forms of criminality threatening national security,” he said.
The Defence spokesperson said the military’s operational gains were reinforced by nine dialogue and peace-building initiatives and 15 engagements with traditional and religious leaders.
He attributed the successes to “joint military operations, inter-agency cooperation and community support” and called on Nigerians to continue supplying security agencies with timely and actionable intelligence.
The Nigeria Police Force complemented the military campaign with intelligence-led operations that resulted in the arrest of 1,334 suspects and the rescue of 383 kidnapped victims nationwide.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Anietie Inedu, said 175 firearms, more than 3,790 rounds of ammunition, 93 vehicles and several rustled cattle were recovered, while 127 notorious criminals were neutralised.
Inedu said the results were achieved through intelligence-led and technology-driven policing, improved inter-agency cooperation and tactical operations.
He disclosed that police tactical teams successfully prevented a large-scale attack after engaging about 240 bandits, while 32 kidnapped victims were rescued at Maikujera in Rabah Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
At Amla-Cho Forest, another operation forced bandits to abandon 13 kidnapped victims, who were rescued unhurt.
The FPRO said police operations conducted in collaboration with vigilantes and other security actors also led to the rescue of 76 victims in separate incidents.
The force also intensified its campaign against arms trafficking, recovering 551 rounds of AK-47 ammunition and 10 loaded magazines from a female suspect along the Doma-Yelwa Road.
Another operation yielded 870 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition from suspected gun-runners, while three suspects linked to the June 29 attack on police officers at Aluu Division were arrested and two stolen AK-47 rifles recovered.
In a separate offensive, 18 suspects were arrested and 47 firearms, 12 stolen vehicles and 420 rounds of ammunition recovered.
“The Nigeria Police Force remains resolute in its commitment to securing the nation,” Inedu said.
At the strategic arms-control level, the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, NCCSALW, recorded a major milestone with the destruction of 1,419 illicit weapons on July 30.
The Director-General of the Centre, DIG Johnson Kokumo (retd.), said the exercise, held at Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment, Giri, Abuja, brought the total number of illicit weapons destroyed by the Centre since 2022 to more than 19,000.
He said the destruction was necessary to prevent illicit weapons from being diverted back to terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other criminal groups.
Kokumo also disclosed that 5,050 illicit, unserviceable, decommissioned and obsolete automatic weapons were recovered from the Nigeria Police Force in June.
He said Customs subsequently handed over 399 Jojef automatic guns intercepted at the nation’s ports to NCCSALW on August 17.
The Centre is also prosecuting 11 suspects linked to the illegal importation of 844 assorted automatic firearms and 112,500 rounds of ammunition intercepted in a container at Onne Port.
Kokumo said the ongoing prosecution was being pursued in collaboration with relevant justice-sector institutions.
The Nigeria Customs Service provided a critical border-security component of the campaign, intercepting the 399 Jojef rifles at Tin Can Island Port and transferring 3,300 cartridges of explosives seized at Seme border to the police.
Customs also handed over nine containers containing narcotics and unregistered pharmaceuticals valued at N53.39 billion to NDLEA and NAFDAC.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA recorded a broad offensive against drug trafficking networks, arresting 3,705 suspects between July 1 and August 21.
The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said NDLEA conducted 2,298 targeted operations, dismantled 90 major criminal gangs, destroyed more than 1,200 drug joints and seized 53,980.27kg of illicit drugs.
The agency secured 471 convictions from 574 cases prosecuted and placed 990 drug users under counselling, treatment and rehabilitation.
Babafemi disclosed that NDLEA seized 184.5kg of cocaine at a courier facility in Lagos and arrested alleged cartel kingpin Afolabi Kazeem Michael, popularly known as “KC Luxury”, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport while allegedly attempting to travel to Paris.
The agency also intercepted more than 1.63 million Tramadol pills linked to an international pharmaceutical opioid-smuggling network.
NDLEA further obtained orders freezing bank accounts containing more than N9.8 billion allegedly connected to cartel activities and destroyed 329,865.58kg of illicit substances valued at N301.058 billion in Lagos.
The financial dimension of the security campaign was reinforced by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, which intensified efforts to trace the financial networks behind kidnapping, terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking, illegal mining and other organised criminal activities.
The NFIU said criminal networks, irrespective of the commodities or weapons they deploy, ultimately depend on financial flows that can be traced and disrupted.
“The message is clear: criminal networks may operate through weapons, kidnappings or illicit commodities, but their operations ultimately leave a financial footprint,” the unit said.
It said its priority remained to “identify the money, expose the networks, disrupt the financing and support the recovery of criminal proceeds.”
The Nigeria Immigration Service and NAPTIP also reported significant interventions against human trafficking and transnational criminal networks.
The Immigration Service rescued 23 suspected trafficking victims and dismantled a fraudulent transnational organised crime syndicate linked to the QNET/Ignite group.
NAPTIP secured nine convictions of traffickers and rescued more than 80 suspected victims during July and August.
The agency also launched an investigation into the alleged trafficking of 54 children from Loko community in Nasarawa State, where displaced parents were allegedly deceived into releasing their children under the guise of an educational initiative.
In Rivers State, NAPTIP, in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health, sealed an illegal maternity facility in Elelenwo, Port Harcourt, and arrested three suspects allegedly linked to an international baby-selling network.
On the humanitarian and disaster-management front, NEMA provided relief assistance to 24,625 households, representing 147,750 persons, during July and August.
The agency also received 2,466 Nigerian returnees from different countries and strengthened flood early-warning interventions in communities considered vulnerable to flooding.
The FRSC, meanwhile, responded to 740 road traffic crash scenes involving 4,497 persons in July, evacuating 2,295 injured victims, although 314 fatalities were recorded.
The Federal Fire Service attended to 426 fire incidents, saving 585 lives and protecting property estimated at N107.98 billion.
The July-August performance of the security and emergency-response agencies therefore reflects a multi-agency approach in which military operations are being reinforced by police intelligence, arms-control measures, drug interdiction, border enforcement, financial intelligence, anti-trafficking interventions and emergency management.
The agencies maintained that stronger inter-agency cooperation, community participation and timely intelligence would remain critical to sustaining the pressure on criminal networks and consolidating the security gains recorded across the country.
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