The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has said it is aware of the United States (US) air strikes carried out against suspected terrorists in Sokoto State but will not disclose details of the operation to the public.
The police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, stated this on Tuesday during an appearance on Politics Today, a political and current affairs programme on Channels Television.
“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 on the programme hosted by Seun Okinbaloye.
He added that while there had been inter-agency cooperation, the matter fell squarely within the remit of the defence authorities.
“There was a cooperation, but we would rather leave it as a defence matter that the defence would talk about,” the police spokesman said.
The remarks follow confirmation by the United States Department of Defense that American forces conducted air strikes in Sokoto on December 25, 2025, killing what it described as “multiple ISIS terrorists.”
The Pentagon said the strikes were carried out at the request of the Nigerian government.
US President Donald Trump announced the operation on his Truth Social platform, praising the US military and linking the strikes to attacks on Christians in Nigeria.
The Federal Government has said the operation was a joint security effort approved by President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on the Boxing Day edition of Sunrise Daily on Channels Television, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said the cooperation with the United States was aimed solely at countering terrorism.
“Now that the US is cooperating, we would do it jointly, and we would ensure, just as the President emphasised yesterday before he gave the go-ahead, that it must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion nor simply in the name of one religion or the other,” Tuggar said.
He added: “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.”
The strikes came amid heightened rhetoric from President Trump, who described Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and said Christians in the country faced what he called an “existential threat.”
The Federal Government has rejected those claims, insisting that its security operations are designed to protect all Nigerians, regardless of religious affiliation.
READ ALSO: Third Mainland Bridge Rehabilitation Cost N43bn, CCTV Centre N2.5bn — Umahi