Because an arms shipment was stopped last week, a market is open somewhere in Nigeria today. A bandit kingpin is in court, so the village is quieter. This Monday morning, a child in the Southeast went to school for the first time in years without being afraid. These things didn’t just happen; they were planned, information was gathered, and actions were taken by an agency that most Nigerians don’t think about very often, unless they have a reason to.
The Department of State Services doesn’t hold press conferences to talk about its successes. When a terror cell is broken up or a truck carrying 164,000 rounds of live ammunition is stopped before it gets to its destination, it doesn’t get a lot of attention on social media. Its agents don’t take bows when a fugitive is finally caught after 13 long years. Or when a financier who paid for massacres from the comfort of a UAE business has his accounts frozen. That’s how the job is. The best security is when you can’t see it, like a wall that you only notice when it has a crack.
But being invisible has a price. When Nigerians don’t see the results, they can’t judge it fairly. And when the only stories that come out are the ones that cause trouble, like the arrests, the political cases, and the headlines that make people suspicious, the whole picture is lost. This piece is an attempt to bring that picture back. The DSS has been following a plan for the last 18 months that is quietly, methodically, and eventually making Nigeria safer. Anyone who wants to can see the proof.
The DSS’s plan is based on a simple idea: if you take out the commanders, the chain of command falls apart. This has been shown most clearly in the North, where a number of high-profile arrests have taken out some of Nigeria’s most dangerous terrorist groups.
In August 2025, operatives caught Mahmud Muhammad Usman, the self-proclaimed Emir of Ansaru and one of Nigeria’s most wanted terrorists. His Chief of Staff, Mahmud al-Nigeri, was also caught.
Around the same time, DSS agents arrested Abubakar Abba, the leader of the Mahmuda group. This Boko Haram faction terrorized communities in Kwara and Kogi states and forced thousands of people to leave their homes. The US Embassy said that these operations were a big step forward in the fight against terrorism. Usman has been given a 15-year prison sentence for one of his many crimes, and the prosecution is still going on for other crimes. Three months later, Abdulazeez Obadaki, the Ansaru commander, was caught again after a 13-year search. He was accused of planning the 2012 massacre of worshippers at the Deeper Life Bible Church in Kogi State, near Okene.
The secret police have also shown that they can be creative and smart in their work. In May 2025, two kidnapping bosses who had been behind violent attacks along the Sokoto-Zamfara axis were found and arrested at Abuja and Sokoto Hajj camps while pilgrims were being screened before leaving. In Kaduna State, joint operations by the DSS and the Army in a single quarter led to 34 successes, the arrest of 54 suspects, the recovery of weapons ranging from RPGs to heavy machine guns, and the rescue of 79 kidnapped victims. In the FCT, a joint operation in September 2025 took out bandit leader Abdullahi Umar, also known as “Duna.” His gang had kidnapped a high-ranking civil servant and asked for ₦150 million in ransom. In Osun State, a 90-day undercover surveillance operation broke up an ISWAP cell that was in the middle of training to make explosives.
The Yelwata killings in Benue State and the Angwa Rukuba killings in Plateau State were two of the worst massacres in Nigeria’s recent history. They put the government’s promise to bring mass violence offenders to justice to the test. In both cases, the DSS helped the government pass the test.
On June 13, 2025, gunmen attacked the Yelwata community in Guma LGA of Benue State, killing at least 150 people and injuring 107 others. The attacks were condemned around the world. President Bola Tinubu went to Benue State to personally offer his condolences and tell security agencies to find the people responsible. The DSS acted quickly, as they needed to. The Inspector-General of Police said that 26 people had been arrested in 11 days. By August 2025, the DSS had brought six different terrorism cases against nine suspects to the Federal High Court in Abuja. Two other people were charged with attacks that were thought to be revenge. The prosecution is still going on, with the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation in charge. Courts are currently hearing evidence, and eight government witnesses are ready to testify.
The Angwa Rukuba case was similar in that the President made a promise and the DSS followed through. Gunmen killed more than 30 people, including children, in Jos North LGA of Plateau State on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026. This made people all over the world angry. President Tinubu went to Jos and told the people there in person that those responsible for the killings would be punished. Following the President’s order, the suspects were taken into custody between April 3 and April 10, 2026. The Plateau State Government then charged five people who had been arrested by the DSS with criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism, culpable homicide, illegal possession of firearms, and illegal dealing in arms and ammunition. As the case got underway, courts had already ordered that they be held in DSS custody.
The two cases mentioned above are important for more than just the individual prosecutions. They show that the DSS listens and acts when the President speaks. It means that the people who attacked these communities will now have to face the law. These communities have lost so much that words alone can’t comfort them. This is a huge step forward for the criminal justice system in a country that has long been able to get away with mass killings.
Gunmen attacked St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, on June 5, 2022. More than 50 people were killed and many more were hurt. As I write this, the DSS is taking Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar to the Federal High Court in Abuja because they are thought to be connected to the attack.
For almost four years, the sixth suspect, Sani Yusuf, was able to avoid arrest. He became one of Nigeria’s most wanted criminals. The DSS did, however, arrest him in the Iguosa community along Powerline in Ovia North LGA of Edo State in February.
The DSS is also working hard to convict Khalid Al Barnawi and four other people who are thought to have bombed the United Nations building in Abuja on August 26, 2011. This case is also in front of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
More than 20 people from different countries died in the attack, and more than 70 were hurt. People think that Al-Barnawi helped start Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid Da’wah Wa’l-Jihad, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. Along with Al-Barnawi, Mohammed Bashir Saleh, Umar Mohammed Bello (also known as Datti), Mohammed Salisu, and Yakubu Nuhu (also known as Bello Maishayi) are also charged.
To show how serious the Service was about the terrorism trial, the DSS, through its lawyer Alex Iziyon, SAN, asked for an accelerated trial because the Service was ready for it to end quickly.
It’s true that armed groups don’t just rely on ideology; they also need weapons, ammo, and supply networks. The DSS has been systematically going after those pipelines, and recent arrests show how advanced those networks are.
In January 2026, Zamfara police stopped Abubakar Umar, a well-known arms smuggler, with a large stash of weapons from Niger Republic. In May 2026, a joint operation on the Asaba-Onitsha expressway stopped a truck that was supposedly carrying more than 164,000 live cartridges to IPOB/ESN networks. These hauls, which go through motor parks, border routes, and highways, show that the DSS is getting into every part of the supply chain.
Operatives caught 25-year-old Nafisa Usman in April 2026 at a motor park in Kano. She was allegedly moving 200 rounds of ammunition from Lafia in Nasarawa State to Kankara in Katsina, which is known as a bandit corridor. Security sources said that she had helped with deals worth more than ₦5 million, using the Unguwa Uku motor park as a stopover for shipments going to Kankara forest. They stopped her before the package could get to its destination. Halima Haliru Umar also went to court for a similar case and pleaded guilty to illegally having 302 rounds of live ammunition that she had sent to a bandit leader. The DSS then arrested three more arms traffickers, who were sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Chief Magistrate Court in Taraba. They could not pay a fine.
The prosecution of Nnamdi Kanu, the head of the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has caused a lot of controversy in Nigeria in recent years. In November 2025, the Federal High Court in Abuja found him guilty of terrorism and sentenced him to life in prison. Several well-known Igbo leaders have been trying to get a political solution through the courts.
It’s important to point out that security has gotten a lot better in the Southeast states since Kanu was found guilty. The Monday sit-at-home orders, which violently closed schools, markets, banks, and gas stations every Monday since 2021, came to an end for good in February 2026. Kanu himself gave the order from inside his prison in Sokoto.
SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s top geopolitical research firm, found that the weekly closures between 2021 and early 2025 cost the country more than ₦7.6 trillion. This money was taken away from one of Nigeria’s most commercially active areas for no reason. Every day of the week, markets in Onitsha, Aba, Nnewi, and other big commercial towns in the Southeast are open. Monday is now a school day. The Nigerian Army has officially said that the arrests of Kanu and Simon Ekpa, a Finnish citizen who was convicted of being an IPOB member, have made security better. They say that the criminal activities and operational abilities of groups linked to the ESN have dropped a lot.
A region that lost more than ₦7 trillion in business due to forced shutdowns is now slowly but surely getting back on its feet.
To break up terror networks, you need to do more than just arrest the foot soldiers. It means cutting off the money that keeps them alive. In April 2026, the Nigeria Sanctions Committee, which is led by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, released an updated list of 48 people and 12 businesses that are known to support terrorism. He then told everyone to freeze all accounts and assets that were connected to the case right away.
The list includes people from ISWAP, Boko Haram, Ansaru, and IPOB, as well as other groups that are a threat to Nigeria’s security. The ways of financing that were found are shocking: cryptocurrency and online fraud, handling ransom from the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack, buying property in several states, and sending money through businesses in the UAE. One suspect recorded ₦61.4 billion in account deposits before sending tens of millions to terrorists who had already been found guilty. By designating and freezing these networks, we can stop the problem at its source by cutting off the money before it ever gets to the field.
Over the past few months, the picture of Nigeria’s security situation is slowly coming together. It shows that the country is starting to seriously punish everyone who chooses violence. Terrorist leaders who were once thought to be untouchable are now in court. People who used to be able to get away with stealing guns are now being stopped. People who paid for massacres from the shadows are having their bank accounts frozen. People in communities that saw their loved ones buried without justice are now watching suspects go to court.
If this strategic momentum keeps going and gets stronger, and the DSS keeps building up its intelligence capabilities, speeding up prosecutions, and improving coordination with the military, other security agencies, the judiciary, and international partners, then the path will lead to something that Nigerians have wanted for a long time but haven’t gotten.
For decades, Nigeria dealt with insecurity. But the DSS’s current plan shows that it is possible to end insecurity. That there is a future that is worth building on. The results of the last few months under Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi show that we can all work together to make Nigeria safe again!
Hon. Dr. Philip “Okanga” Agbese, a transformative leader in Enone. Discover his achievements, community projects, and vision for 2027
