The government of President Bola Tinubu says Nigerians were misinformed by an earlier claim that ISIS leader Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki was killed in 2024. 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki was killed by U.S. and Nigerian forces on Friday has triggered reactions among Nigerians, with many resurfacing past statements by the Nigerian military claiming the ISIS leader had already been eliminated. 

In a statement on Saturday, Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson for the Tinubu government, said, “It is acknowledged within military and intelligence circles that Al-Manuki’s name had appeared among lists of suspected ISWAP/Boko Haram commanders reportedly killed in 2024 during operations around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State.”

“However, security officials now clarify that the earlier listing was a case of mistaken identity or misattribution in the fog of sustained counterinsurgency operations. Importantly, intelligence now confirms that the Birnin Gwari theatre was never within Al-Manuki’s established operational sphere, which negates the accuracy of the earlier assessment.”

According to the presidential spokesperson, the needless controversy trailing the reported elimination of Al-Manuki, described as a senior commander of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has once again exposed the gulf between the public sceptics and the realities of modern counterterrorism operations.

He stated that modern counterterrorism history is replete with similar cases of initial uncertainty, particularly in complex environments where insurgent networks operate across difficult terrain and rely heavily on aliases, fragmented identities, and misinformation.

“For example, even in the global campaign against ISIS leadership, early reports of the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi were later proven incorrect, with his actual death confirmed four years after the first successful killing was announced,” Mr Onanuga said.

He added, “Such cases highlight not failure but rather the evolving, often imperfect nature of intelligence gathering in asymmetric warfare.”

Hours after Mr Trump announced that Mr Al-Manuki had been killed in airstrikes on Friday, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) on Saturday released footage of the operation in which the ISIS leader and other members of his group were killed.