The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has provided a different explanation from the Presidency on the controversy surrounding the killing of Abubakar Mainok.
Nigeria and the US government, in separate statements on Saturday, announced the killing of Mr Mainok, also known as Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki.
However, since Mr Mainok was announced killed on Saturday in a joint operation by Nigerian and US forces, many Nigerians have raised concerns that the Nigerian military had claimed it had killed the same man in 2024.
But the military has now said that the terrorist killed in 2024 is not Mr Mainok, explaining that similarities in names and aliases are common within insurgent networks operating across the Lake Chad region.
PREMIUM TIMES understands that certain coinages with prefixes beginning with “Abu” and suffixes ending with names of towns or popular Muslim names are commonly adopted within terrorist circles as aliases intended to obscure real identities, complicate intelligence tracking and reinforce group indoctrination.
During a press briefing in April 2024, the Defence Headquarters said Mr Mainok, then named as Abu Bilal Minuki, was killed alongside his lieutenants in Birnin Gwari forest in Kaduna State. Former defence spokesperson, Edward Buba, told reporters that Mr Mainok was killed alongside other bandits such as Haruna Boderi.
However, questions emerged following announcements by President Bola Tinubu and US President Donald Trump that Mr Mainok was killed on Saturday.
Earlier, the presidency addressed the matter, saying the 2024 report may have involved mistaken identity or misattribution during counterinsurgency operations.
Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga further explained that intelligence later showed the Birnin Gwari axis, where the previous operation, during which the military claimed to have killed Mr Mainok in 2024, was outside the terror leader’s established operational sphere.
The presidency said the latest operation followed months of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities, communications monitoring and phone intercepts that allegedly tracked the commander’s movements across northern Nigeria, including in Abuja and Maiduguri, before he was finally killed.
According to a statement by Sani Uba, the spokesperson for Operation Hadin Kai, a joint task force in the North-east, Mr Mainok was killed in an operation conducted by troops of the task force and the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).
A contradicting statement
To address this public scepticism, the Defence Headquarters issued a statement on Saturday that appears to contradict the presidency’s statement.
In its official position, the Defence Headquarters did not directly describe the 2024 report as an intelligence error or mistaken identity. Instead, it emphasised that the use of identical aliases among insurgents remains common in the region.
Samaila Uba, the spokesperson for the Defence Headquarters, explained the apparent contradiction stemmed from the widespread use of similar names and aliases among fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram.
“It is important to state that within the North East region and across the Lake Chad Basin, the use of similar or identical names, aliases and nom de guerres is common among ISWAP and Boko Haram terrorists,” Mr Uba, a major general, stated.
According to him, the practice forms part of the insurgents’ indoctrination process aimed at deliberately obscuring identities and complicating counterterrorism operations.
He said the Mr Mainok killed in the latest strike had been positively identified through human intelligence and technical surveillance.
“The Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki eliminated on 16 May, 2026, has been positively identified through human intelligence and technical surveillance as a senior global operative within the Islamic State network, with direct links to international terrorist coordination, funding and operations across the Sahel. There is therefore no ambiguity in his identity,” he added.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Mainok was specially designated as a global terrorist in 2023. One of the documents obtained from US registers traced his origin to Mainok, a town in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State.
Mr Mainok was a key figure in ISWAP. He rose through the ranks and became the head of Al-Furqan, which oversees operations by the Islamic State’s affiliates in West Africa.
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The Defence Headquarters described the recent operation that killed him as a significant milestone in ongoing counterterrorism efforts and reaffirmed its commitment, alongside the United States, to dismantling terrorist networks operating within the region.
It urged the public and the media to rely on verified official information to avoid confusion arising from coincidental similarities in names among terrorist commanders.
However, some Nigerians continue to express doubts and have called for independent verification, pointing to previous instances where terror leaders like the former Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, were declared dead only to later resurface.
For instance, Mr Shekau was declared dead about six times by military authorities between 2009 and 2021. Most times, he would resurface in propaganda videos to mock these claims until his confirmed death in May 2021, when he blew himself up during a clash with rival terrorists.