As Nigerians continue to reel from the deadly attack that occurred in Woro and Nuku villages of Kwara state, intelligence reports have identified the top terrorist figure behind the massacre.
Reports emerging on Saturday have revealed that the top terrorist figure behind the Kwara massacre is a notorious Boko Haram cell leader, Abubakar Saidu, popularly known as Sadiku.
The massacre, which occurred between February 3 and 4, 2026, has left an estimated 160 to 200 people dead and dozens more missing.
Intelligence reports identify Sadiku as a ruthless commander leading a mobile Boko Haram cell.
Unlike traditional “bandits” motivated by ransom, Sadiku’s operations are driven by a hardline extremist ideology.
Sadiku is reported to operate out of the dense Borgu forest region, leveraging the proximity to the borders of Niger and the Benin Republics to evade capture.
His cell specializes in “forced indoctrination.” Before the Kwara attack, Sadiku reportedly sent letters and pamphlets to village heads, demanding they reject the Nigerian constitution and embrace a radical interpretation of Sharia law.
Recall that the village head of Woro community in Kwara State, Salihu Umar had confirmed that a letter written in Hausa and dated 19 Rajab 1447 (January 8) was delivered to him about three weeks before the massacre.
The letter, signed by JAS, stated that the group wished to “secretly” meet with community leaders to preach and would not harm residents.
Umar said he photocopied the letter and submitted it to the Kaiama Emirate, while also forwarding a soft copy to the Department of State Services office in Kaiama.
Before surfacing in Kwara, Saidu’s cell was active in border villages within Niger State, where they used similar “preach-then-attack” tactics to intimidate rural populations.
Investigations also revealed a 12-year evolution that saw him rise from a handpicked lieutenant of the late Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, in 2014, to what security analysts now describe as the “Shekau of the North-Central” by 2026.
Security findings indicate that Boko Haram originally deployed Sadiku to Niger State as a trusted operative tasked with expanding the group’s influence beyond its traditional North-East base.
A self-styled counterterrorism analyst on X, MobilisingNigeria, traced Sadiku’s ascent within the insurgency to his close ties with the late Shekau, who personally selected him to represent Boko Haram’s interests in Niger State.
“He later worked with Dogo Gide to expand into the North-Central terrain and also collaborated with the Darul Islam terrorist group before the police dismantled it,” the analyst wrote.
For a period, Sadiku maintained an alliance with notorious bandit kingpin Gide, leveraging the partnership to acquire weapons, intelligence, and local influence.
However, ideological disagreements eventually fractured the alliance, leading to violent clashes that claimed the lives of fighters on both sides.
Following the split, Sadiku retreated deeper into the forests, eventually establishing a base within the Kainji Forest Reserve in July 2025.
A Kwara-based security expert, who identified himself as Hassan, confirmed that Sadiku’s relocation to the Kainji corridor signalled a dangerous expansion of Boko Haram-style insurgency into the North-Central region.
“For over a decade, Boko Haram violence was largely concentrated in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.”
“But splinter factions and allied groups are now exploiting forests, weak security presence, and porous borders to push westward,” he said.
A West and East Africa security tracker, Brandon Phillips, also stated that the top terrorist figure behind the Kwara massacre is Sadiku.
Phillips revealed that the attack occurred less than four kilometres from Nuku, where fighters of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, an Al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel, claimed their first-ever attack in Nigeria in October 2025.
According to him, the proximity suggests an operational overlap between JNIM and the Sadiku-led Boko Haram faction, pointing to either an opportunistic alliance or a non-aggression pact.
Phillips further noted that the Woro massacre followed a similar pattern to recent attacks in the Papiri area of Niger State, indicating a continued southward push by Sadiku’s faction toward areas of the Kainji Reserve dominated by JNIM.
