We handed electronic materials recovered from terrorists to US forces – Nigerian Military

The Nigerian military has dismissed claims by a senior
United States official that American forces seized a large cache of electronic
materials from terrorists during an operation in Nigeria and flew the materials
out of the country.

 

Refuting the claims, Director of Defence Information,
Brig-Gen Samalia Uba, explained that the materials contained declassified
information from previous counter-terrorism operations conducted by the
Nigerian Armed Forces, NAF.

Uba said the intelligence materials were voluntarily
provided to the United States as part of ongoing counter-terrorism cooperation
between both countries.

He noted that the intelligence was not captured by American
forces but released by the Nigerian government under an existing security
collaboration.

“The materials were given to the US,” Uba said, adding that
the development formed part of the longstanding security partnership between
Nigeria and the United States.

The clarifications mark the first official response from the
Nigerian authorities since the claim was made by the US.

The controversy came after comments by the US Deputy
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the
National Security Council, Sebastian Gorka, who said American forces recovered
a massive cache of electronic materials during an operation in Nigeria.

Gorka had claimed that the US operators killed 199 jihadists
during the mission and recovered what he described as the largest volume of
enemy electronic intelligence since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“I watched our operators kill 199 jihadis in one operation
and seize an unprecedented volume of intelligence materials,” he said.

Responding to the US claims, Uba said the intelligence
exchange should not be interpreted as American forces independently seizing
materials from terrorists in Nigeria.

“It is not a new operation. We have previously communicated
our highly successful joint operations in May. Nigeria-US joint operations and
collaboration are very much on course,” he said.

Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday

Advertise on NOP NIGERIA to reach thousands of our daily users