Ex-DSS chief  reveals how soldier forced Oyo kidnappers to free pupils

Former DSS Assistant Director-General Mohammed Ngoshe has revealed that security forces broke the Oriire kidnappers by surrounding their hideout, cutting off food and weapons supplies, neutralising their informants and showing them video evidence of their encirclement — forcing the terrorists to release the hostages after realising annihilation was imminent.

They were surrounded. Their food was cut off. Their informants were turned. Their videos showed them there was nowhere left to run.

Former Assistant Director-General of the Department of State Services, Mohammed Ngoshe, has provided the most detailed public account yet of how Nigerian security forces systematically dismantled the Oriire kidnapping operation — breaking the terrorists psychologically before they physically surrendered their captives.

Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, Ngoshe, as reported by The Punch, described a methodical operation that isolated the terrorists’ location, denied them access to supplies, flipped their informants into security assets and then showed the kidnappers footage of their own encirclement.

“They were denied access to food. They were denied access to weapons. Their informants were taken out and used as assets. Videos of all these operations were ferried to them, and they saw that they had no option but to surrender,” Ngoshe stated.

With every lifeline severed, the kidnappers sought a negotiated exit — one that security forces refused to provide.

“Now the problem, to them, was how to resolve the matter amicably. Amicably in the sense that they wanted a lifeline, and that lifeline did not come because the security forces did not accede to it,” he said.

Facing annihilation, the terrorists calculated that releasing the hostages might spare them — a calculation that proved only partially correct.

“Getting to the level where they were to be annihilated completely, they gave out the children thinking that that will resolve the matter. After the children were successfully resolved, the Forces engaged them,” Ngoshe revealed.

The former DSS official also confirmed that three security personnel — drawn from the police, army and other services — were killed after stepping on improvised explosive devices as troops closed in during the final phase of the operation.

Ngoshe dismissed criticism over the government’s communication during the operation, urging Nigerians to focus instead on commending the security forces for what he described as a well-executed mission.