The Nigeria Police Force has recorded a fresh wave of operational successes across several states, including the rescue of two kidnapped victims in Adamawa State and the arrest of over 330 suspects in a sweep of criminal hideouts in the Federal Capital Territory, according to the latest state-by-state operational summary released by the Force.
The report, issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Ani Iniedu, covers operations carried out between September 19 and 20, 2026, across Adamawa, the FCT, Anambra, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, Ekiti, Benue and Oyo states.
In Adamawa State, police operatives acting on intelligence cordoned off a suspected kidnappers’ den in Shako Forest, Toungo Local Government Area, on September 20, rescuing two victims unhurt. The operation also led to the recovery of two magazines containing ten rounds of 7.62×39mm live ammunition, along with a National Identification Number (NIN) card, a mobile phone, a passport and a chain believed to belong to the victims or their captors. The case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Yola for further investigation.
In the capital, police conducted coordinated raids on criminal hotspots, black spots and uncompleted buildings across several areas of the FCT on September 19, arresting 334 suspects and recovering various quantities of suspected illicit drugs. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Abuja is investigating.
- Anambra State: A suspected child trafficker was arrested while in transit with a six-month-old baby boy on September 20. The infant was recovered and handed over to the appropriate authorities.
- Kaduna State: Detectives arrested four suspects linked to a kidnapping operation on September 19, recovering a locally-made Dane gun; a fifth suspect, believed to be a syndicate member, was separately arrested at Soba Market and has implicated five fleeing accomplices.
- Ebonyi State: Following what police described as sustained, technology-driven investigation into the kidnapping of a female police officer, a principal suspect was arrested and reportedly led operatives to a location where her remains were recovered — a grim outcome that underscores the risks confronting both victims and the officers pursuing their cases. In a separate case in the state, another suspect led police to a site where a second kidnap victim’s remains were recovered.
- Imo and Ogun States: Suspects were arrested in connection with firearms-related offences, with a locally-made cut-to-size gun recovered in Owerri West and a single-barrel gun and ammunition recovered following a fatal shooting in Remo North.
- Ekiti State: Two suspects were arrested over shop-breaking incidents in Ado-Ekiti, while a separate patrol recovered an abandoned pump-action gun and a locally-made single-barrel gun from farmland in the same area.
- Benue State: Police tactical teams, backed by the Police Mobile Force and military units, dispersed rampaging youths during a communal clash in Akpa-Mbakor community, Tarka LGA, restoring calm to the area.
- Oyo State: A truck driver was arrested and his vehicle impounded following a fatal road traffic incident along the Ijebu-Ode/Idi-Ayunre road.
The Adamawa rescue is the latest in a string of kidnap-victim recoveries the Force has publicised since Tunji Disu became Inspector-General of Police in February 2026. Under his leadership, the Force has repeatedly framed victim rescue as a central measure of its performance, with Disu telling senior officers in July that “success is not the number of operations we run — it is the security outcomes those operations produce.”
That emphasis has coincided with a run of high-profile rescues. In April, a joint police, military and DSS operation freed seven of roughly fourteen people abducted in an attack on churches in Kaduna State’s Ariko village. In June, the Force’s Intelligence Response Team recovered a mother and her twin sons abducted in Ibadan, in an operation that left two suspected kidnappers dead. Disu has also pointed to the rescue of NECO students and teachers in Kogi State and of students and staff abducted in Oyo State’s Oriire council area, personally visiting the scene of the Oyo attack and ordering additional tactical and intelligence resources to the area.
At the same July briefing, the Force disclosed that it had arrested 1,198 suspects and rescued 166 kidnapped victims nationwide over roughly six weeks, alongside the recovery of 166 firearms, more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition and 47 stolen vehicles — figures the IGP cited as evidence of intensified, intelligence-led policing even as he acknowledged that kidnapping, banditry and other organised crime “continue to evolve.”
The Ebonyi case, in which a kidnapped police officer was not recovered alive, is a reminder that the Force’s rescue record remains mixed even as it publicises its successes — a point Disu himself has made in urging commanders to keep improving operational effectiveness rather than measuring success by activity alone.
Investigations into all the operations listed in the latest summary are ongoing at the respective state SCIDs and the FCT’s CID.
