DSS Rearrests Fugitive Ansaru Commander After Three-Year Nationwide Manhunt
The Department of State Services has ended a three-year search for a notorious Ansaru commander, Abdulazeez Obadaki, after operatives tracked and re-arrested him on Friday morning, closing the chapter on one of the country’s most protracted fugitive hunts since the 2022 Kuje jailbreak.
Obadaki, known within extremist circles as Bomboy, had remained at large since escaping from the Kuje Custodial Centre during the July 2022 prison raid — an attack investigators believe he helped to coordinate shortly after his transfer from the Kabba facility a month earlier.
Security officials involved in the operation confided that a “well-oiled intelligence effort” led to his capture.
The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to brief the press.
Before his escape, Obadaki was already linked to several violent operations. Intelligence reports tie him to the August 7, 2012 assault on the Deeper Life Bible Church in Okene, Kogi State, where armed men fired into a worship service, killing at least 19 people, including the pastor.
Investigators also believe he organised a string of deadly raids on five commercial banks in Uromi, Edo State, within months of the Okene massacre, attacks that left both civilians and police officers dead and resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of naira.
His arrest comes weeks after the DSS prosecuted five suspects in connection with the June 2022 attack on St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State — an incident that shocked the nation and intensified pressure on security agencies to track down suspected masterminds of coordinated extremist violence.
According to officials, Obadaki is considered a key figure within a wider network responsible for high-profile terrorist and criminal activities across the North-Central and South-South regions, and his re-arrest is expected to aid ongoing investigations into multiple unresolved cases.
