The Department of State Services (DSS) has re-arrested a senior commander of the Ansaru terrorist group, Abdulazeez Obadaki, the alleged mastermind of the August 7, 2012 mass shooting at a Deeper Life Bible Church near Okene, Kogi State.
At least 19 worshippers, including the pastor, were killed when three gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles stormed the church during an evening service and opened fire indiscriminately. Several others sustained gunshot injuries.
Security sources confirmed that Obadaki — who reportedly coordinated a string of deadly attacks, including the February 2022 armed robbery on five commercial banks in Uromi, Edo State — was initially arrested but escaped during the July 2022 jailbreak at the Kuje Custodial Centre.
Investigators disclosed that the suspect confessed to orchestrating the Kuje jailbreak after being transferred from the Kabba Custodial Centre in June 2022.
After more than three years on the run, DSS operatives, acting on sustained intelligence, recaptured Obadaki, also known as Bomboy, on Friday morning.
The breakthrough comes less than two months after the agency arraigned five suspects linked to the 2022 attack on a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State.
The Uromi bank raids, carried out in broad daylight in February 2022, left several police officers and civilians dead, while hundreds of millions of naira were stolen, heightening fears across the region.
The DSS under its current leadership has recently recorded a string of operational successes, intensifying the pursuit, arrest, and prosecution of terrorist networks and criminal gangs nationwide.
