The Nigeria Police Force has said it will not disclose details of the United States airstrikes carried out against terrorists in Sokoto State, even though it has information about the operation.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, stated this on Tuesday while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
According to him, the police are aware of certain facts surrounding the airstrikes but have chosen not to speak publicly about them.
“We engage a lot in intelligence gathering, not just intelligence sharing. As the Police Force, we know certain things about the strikes, but we don’t want to talk about them. We decline to talk about that particular operation,” Hundeyin said.
He explained that although the operation involved cooperation among security agencies, it falls under defence matters and should be addressed by military authorities.
“There was a cooperation, but we would rather leave it as a defence matter that the defence would talk about,” he added.
The comments followed United States airstrikes carried out in parts of Sokoto State on December 25, 2025.
The United States Department of Defence said the strikes killed “multiple ISIS terrorists” and were conducted at the request of the Nigerian government.
US President Donald Trump announced the operation on his Truth Social platform, describing it as a successful military action.
“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” Trump wrote. “Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”
He further said US forces carried out “a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria,” claiming the militants had been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.”
“I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump added.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, later confirmed that the Federal Government approved the operation and provided the intelligence used for the strikes.
“It’s Nigeria that provided the intelligence,” Tuggar said. “I was on the phone yesterday for 19 minutes with Secretary of State Marco Rubio of the United States. We spoke extensively, and we agreed that I was going to speak with President Tinubu for President Tinubu to give the go-ahead.”
He stressed that the operation was part of counter-terrorism cooperation between Nigeria and the US and not based on religion.
“We are a multi-religious country, and we are working with partners like the US to fight terrorism and safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerians,” Tuggar said.
The airstrikes came shortly after Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, citing alleged persecution of Christians, a claim the Federal Government has rejected.
Footage sighted on January 11, 2026, showed heavy damage from the strikes, with several terrorists reportedly killed and their vehicles and hideouts destroyed.
The video captured three separate strikes carried out between December 24 and 25, 2025. A secondary explosion was also seen after the first strike, suggesting the presence of explosives, while suspected terrorists were seen fleeing the area.
