As US Navy seizes Nigerian Oil Tanker
By Luka Binniyat
(Abuja) – Nigeria has permitted the United States to conduct armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) strikes on terror groups organizing massacres of Nigerian Christians, signaling a tacit security pact, TruthNigeria has learned.
Last week, credible open-source aviation monitors detected a U.S. surveillance fighter jet carrying out extended reconnaissance missions over Kwara and Ekiti States. For many Nigerian defence analysts, such flights—especially in the southwest—were previously unthinkable.
The flights, later amplified by military researchers, came only days after separate claims that U.S. aircraft had conducted classified surveillance runs over Boko Haram and ISWAP strongholds in the Lake Chad Basin. The pattern suggests a coordinated expansion of U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) activities across Nigeria’s internal battlefronts.
Rare Surveillance Flights Signal a New Phase of Military Cooperation
According to Brant Phillip, a respected Sahel conflict researcher, the earliest hints of deeper U.S. involvement surfaced when reconnaissance flights were traced to an American-military-linked facility in Ghana. Initial sightings soon evolved into sustained Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaisance (ISR) missions over Kogi, Kwara, Ekiti, and parts of Niger State—areas far from traditional insurgency theatres.
Phillip has reported that a silent but far-reaching security pact now exists between Abuja and Washington—one that allows armed U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to execute precision strikes on Nigerian territory. He also confirmed that ISR flights over Nigeria’s Southwest marked a historic first for U.S. military aviation in Nigeria.
“For the first time, the U.S. is conducting ISR in southwest Nigeria, above Kwara and Ekiti States,” he noted, describing the aircraft loitering for long periods to collect layered intelligence.
Extended Flights Over Islamic State-Linked Areas
Attention also shifted to the Northwest after data showed U.S. aircraft performing surveillance above Tangaza LGA in Sokoto State—a zone increasingly traversed by terrorists of the Islamic State Sahel Province (IS-Sahel). Flight-tracking enthusiasts documented loitering patterns over Kainji Lake in Niger State for more than an hour and an additional 90 minutes above Tangaza. Pilots intermittently broadcast their transponders, a classic “ghost pattern” common to covert ISR missions in conflict zones.
Phillip noted that the Sokoto flights marked the sixth consecutive day of U.S. surveillance activity over Islamic State-affected provinces in Nigeria.
He outlined the alleged terms:
· Only unmanned (drone) strike platforms may be used for offensive missions.
· No manned U.S. fighter jets or bombers are allowed to conduct attacks.
· Nigeria retains veto authority over strike targets, ensuring joint decision-making and oversight.
If accurate, this puts Nigeria in the same operational model as Somalia, parts of the Gulf of Guinea, and pre-2023 Niger, where American drones played central roles in combating extremist movements.
Kainji Air Base as the Likely Launch Hub
Defence sources suspect that LAFB Kainji, located in Niger State, may be the primary operating base for American ISR and upcoming UAV strike missions. Kainji has long hosted joint U.S.–Nigerian training exercises and possesses the infrastructure required for drone operations, including runway capacity, hardened shelters and intelligence fusion facilities.
Analysts say the U.S. role is aimed at bridging persistent intelligence and capability gaps across Nigeria, which include:
· inadequate ISR aircraft,
· limited long-range attack drones,
· insufficient satellite imaging, and
· poor air–ground coordination.
Nigeria’s overstretched forces continue battling Boko Haram factions, ISWAP, terrorist-bandits, and hybrid armed groups across over 900,000 square kilometres of hostile terrain.
US seizes Nigeria Supertanker
The Trump administration has seized the Nigerian-linked supertanker Skipper as part of a global crackdown on terror-financing tied to Islamist networks tormenting Africa’s largest population.
The 20-year-old vessel, managed by Nigeria’s Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., was intercepted in the Caribbean after being linked to stolen crude operations, drug trafficking, terror financing and offshore money-laundering. News sources say that though the tanker was registered in the Marshall Islands, it flew a fake Guyanese flag — a tactic common in covert shipping.
U.S. officials say profits from such illicit oil deals often fund extremist groups, like Boko Haram, Islamic State in West Africa and other Islamic terrorist groups operating in Africa’s Sahel. Trump warned that more Nigeria-focused actions will follow.
Speaking to TruthNigeria from Minna, Niger State—another region ravaged by terrorists—Professor Emmanuel Musa, Head of Sociology and Criminology at Niger State University, said American involvement was inevitable.
“I can bet you that whether Nigeria is willing or unwilling, the U.S. must find its way into the Nigeria security matrix and even try to take control,” Musa said.
He argued that former President Trump sees intervention as both a moral duty and political imperative, given reports of atrocities against Nigerian Christians.
“Nigeria should humble itself and take advantage of any U.S. assistance. It will form the most extensive and qualitative aerial and ground operations against terrorist groups across the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, and the forested, hilly savannahs of the Middle Belt,” he added.
Sovereignty Questions
While the possibility of U.S. UAV strike permissions and now the interception of Nigerian ships may strengthen Nigeria’s fight against insurgency, it also raises sensitive issues:
· Has the National Assembly been briefed?
· Who authorizes strike missions?
· Will there be transparency on collateral damage?
· Will American strikes respect Nigeria’s sovereignty?
For now, both Abuja and Washington remain silent.
But the evidence in the sky—the persistent ISR flights, the confirmed intelligence trails, the expanding aviation footprint—suggests that a historic shift in Nigeria’s security architecture is already unfolding. And the center of it appears to be Nigeria’s quiet approval for American UAV strike operations on its soil.
Luka Binniyat writes for TruthNigeria on Politics and Conflict from Kaduna, Nigeria.
