Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested a suspected high-ranking Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander, identified as Sani Yusuf, believed to be the sixth member involved in the June 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, southwest Nigeria, a massacre that claimed more than 40 civilian lives and wounded many others.
Yusuf had been on the run for nearly four years, evading arrest since the extremist assault that shook the nation and drew international condemnation.
Security forces tracked him to a rural community in Edo State, where he was apprehended following sustained intelligence-led operations.
According to security sources, Yusuf not only participated in planning and executing the Owo church attack, but also confessed to involvement in other violent incidents, including a 2022 attack on a military barracks in Suleja, an ambush at the Zuma Rock checkpoint that killed at least five soldiers, and multiple kidnappings in Kaduna State and surrounding areas.
The DSS is currently prosecuting five other suspects in connection with the Owo assault Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar on terrorism charges.
A security official described the arrest as a significant breakthrough in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and a step toward justice for the victims of one of the country’s deadliest attacks in recent years.
