DSS arrests fugitive Ansaru commander linked to 2012 Okene Church massacre

DSS arrests fugitive Ansaru commander linked to 2012 Okene Church massacre

The Department of State Services (DSS) has re-arrested a top commander of the Ansaru terrorist group, Abdulazeez Obadaki, also known as Bomboy, more than three years after he escaped during the July 2022 jailbreak at the Kuje Custodial Centre in Abuja.

Obadaki is believed to have masterminded the August 7, 2012 attack on worshippers at a Deeper Life Bible Church near Okene, Kogi State, where at least 19 people, including the pastor, were shot dead by three gunmen during an evening service.

Security sources told Vanguard that the notorious militant was tracked and captured on Friday morning following a “well-oiled intelligence operation.” He reportedly confessed to coordinating the Kuje jailbreak shortly after being transferred from the Kabba Custodial Centre in June 2022.

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Aside from the 2012 Okene massacre, Obadaki is also accused of leading the coordinated daylight attacks on several commercial banks in Uromi, Edo State, in February 2022. The operation left policemen and bank customers dead, while hundreds of millions of naira were carted away.

The breakthrough comes barely two months after the DSS arraigned five suspects linked to the June 2022 St. Francis Catholic Church attack in Owo, Ondo State, where dozens of worshippers were killed.

Security sources say the latest arrest underscores the agency’s intensified counter-terrorism operations under its current leadership, which is reportedly fast-tracking the prosecution of terrorists, violent criminals, and their sponsors nationwide.

DSS arrests fugitive Ansaru commander linked to 2012 Okene Church massacre