Seven suspected commanders of Boko Haram and ISWAP were arrested at Katsina Airport on Thursday, moments after they landed from the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The arrests were made possible by Nigeria’s newly integrated digital identity system, according to the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. He announced the operation on Friday in Abuja, shortly after President Bola Tinubu signed the National Identity Management Commission Act, 2026 into law.
Tunji-Ojo said the suspects were flagged in real time because the Nigeria Immigration Service database is now directly linked to the NIMC database and Interpol’s 24-hour security network. The seven men were taken into custody at the airport and transferred to the Department of State Services for further questioning.
“We inherited a fragmented system where government databases didn’t talk to each other,” the minister said. “Today, our immigration data is fully integrated with NIMC and Interpol. That integration identified and stopped these seven known commanders as they returned from Mecca.”
The NIMC Act, 2026 was signed alongside Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, and NIMC Director-General Abisoye Coker-Odusote. Tunji-Ojo called it a major reform to end data silos, protect the integrity of the National Identification Number, and force security agencies to share intelligence.
He added that the unified system will improve Nigeria’s ability to track terrorism, identity fraud, financial crimes, and other cross-border offenses. It also changes how passports are issued. Under the new rules, no Nigerian passport can be processed without passing real-time verification through the central NIMC database, closing loopholes criminals previously used.
The government says the upgrade gives intelligence agencies instant access to one identity platform, making it easier to monitor and intercept high-risk individuals across all state systems.
