The Nigerian military has disputed a claim by a senior U.S. counterterrorism official that American forces seized a large cache of electronic materials from terrorists during an operation in Nigeria.
According to Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Samalia Uba, the electronic materials were voluntarily handed over to the United States by Nigeria as part of ongoing intelligence-sharing and counterterrorism cooperation. He said the materials contained declassified intelligence from previous Nigerian military operations against terrorist groups.
The clarification came in response to remarks by Sebastian Gorka, the U.S. Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism, who had said that U.S. operators:
Killed 199 jihadists during an operation in Nigeria.
Recovered what he described as the largest cache of enemy electronic intelligence since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Required an additional aircraft to transport the recovered materials.
The Nigerian military maintains that:
The operation referenced by the U.S. was not a new mission, but a joint Nigeria–U.S. counterterrorism operation conducted in Ma by Nigerian authorities.
The electronic materials were shared by Nigeria with the U.S., rather than independently captured and removed by American forces.
