Nigeria’s 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 the country.
Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Samaila Mohammed Uba, said the materials were not recovered by US troops but were voluntarily shared by Nigeria under an existing intelligence-sharing arrangement between both countries.
His reaction followed comments by US Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, who said American forces obtained what he described as the largest collection of enemy electronic materials since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Nigerian authorities said the information consisted of declassified intelligence gathered from previous counterterrorism operations and shared to support joint security efforts.
Officials added that the materials were exchanged as part of ongoing Nigeria-US cooperation, including recent operations against ISWAP militants.