How DSS, ONSA, Army rescue remaining Kurmin Wali abducted worshippers in Kaduna

By: Zagazola Makama 

In the early hours of Thursday, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), working closely with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and backed by the Nigerian Army, recovered 88 captives from bandits’ hideouts in the Kajuru–Kachia axis. The victims included men, women and two toddlers. 

It would be recalled that gunmen attacked three churches in Kurmin Wali on Jan. 18 and abducted about 167 worshippers. While 80 were released on Feb. 1, others remained in captivity until the latest rescue.

One member of the rescue team, who spoke with security analyst Zagazola after the mission, described the operation as “purely intelligence-led. 

“There was no shooting, no drama. Everything depended on timing, trust, and pressure. We had to move quietly through insecure villages, meet the handlers, and wait in the bush until they produced the victims,” the operative said.

According to him, the convoy left Kaduna city at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday under DSS escort and proceeded through Kachia to Kajuru LGA, navigating narrow and insecure routes to reach Maro and Cibiya villages.

At 11:00 p.m., the team made contact with local intermediaries the kachallas men who sit between communities and criminal groups. Thirty minutes later, they were led to Cibiya village. There was no time for pleasantries. We told them straight: we are here for the victims,” the operative said. “Nothing else.” he said. 

For reasons known only to the abductors, the captives were not brought to the meeting point. Instead, the rescue team was asked to wait. In the bush. For an hour and a half.

“Those 90 minutes felt like a lifetime,” the operative recalled. “You are in hostile terrain, with no guarantee of what comes next.”he said. 

“At exactly 12:45 a.m., in a dark thicket outside Cibiya village, the waiting ended. From different corners of the bush, shadows began to move first a woman clutching a child, then a man limping, then another, and another. In silence, 88 kidnapped worshippers emerged from captivity. There were no sirens. No gunfire. No cheering. Just relief.

He added that one of the vehicles developed a flat tyre at Maro village, but the passengers were quickly redistributed among other vehicles, allowing the convoy to continue to Kaduna.

“We arrived safely and handed over the 88 rescued persons to the DSS headquarters at about 3:30 a.m. for documentation and profiling,” he said.

The source commended the support of the Army and Navy personnel from the Nigerian Army School of Artillery (NASA), Kachia, as well as the Garrison Commander, for providing escort and coordination during the operation.

Zagazola report that the Kajuru LGA has, for years, been a pressure point in Kaduna’s security map. Its forested terrain, poor road access and proximity to Kachia and parts of Niger State make it ideal for bandit transit and hostage warehousing.

The rescue marks more than just the end of a traumatic episode for dozens of families. It also offers a revealing window into Nigeria’s evolving counter-kidnapping architecture one increasingly driven by quiet inter-agency coordination rather than loud battlefield theatrics.

What stands out in the Kurmin Wali rescue is not just the outcome, but the method. Rather than a large-scale military assault, the operation relied on fusion intelligence, the blending of DSS human intelligence, ONSA strategic coordination, and Army/Navy tactical support from the Nigerian Army School of Artillery (NASA), Kachia.

This reflects a broader shift in Nigeria’s internal security playbook:DSS handles negotiations, penetration and tracking, ONSA provides strategic oversight and deconfliction, the military ensures area dominance and safe corridors.

Such layered coordination reduces the risk of civilian casualties and prevents kidnappers from scattering hostages during raids, a recurring problem in previous operations.

The initial police denial of the incident also exposed a familiar gap: the lag between ground reality and official acknowledgment, which often complicates response time and public trust.

The Kaduna State Government is yet to issue an official statement on the operation.