Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, has revealed that Nigeria’s integrated identity management system led to the arrest of seven suspected commanders of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) as they returned from the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage.
Tunji-Ojo disclosed this on Friday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja shortly after President Bola Tinubu signed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act 2026 into law.
The announcement was contained in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy.
According to the minister, the seven suspects were intercepted at the Katsina airport last Thursday immediately after arriving from the Saudi Arabian pilgrimage and were subsequently handed over to the Department of State Services for further investigation.
Tunji-Ojo attributed the arrests to recent reforms that have integrated the National Identity Management Commission database with the Nigeria Immigration Service database while linking both systems to INTERPOL’s global information network.
