14 December 2025
A retired Nigerian Army Major General, Danjuma Hamisu Ali-Keffi, has petitioned the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the leadership of the European Union, alleging that his life and that of his family are under constant threat following his role in a covert anti-terrorism operation under the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a letter describing himself as “distressed and endangered,” Ali-Keffi said the Nigerian state has failed to protect him despite repeated assassination attempts, unlawful detention, and what he described as systematic persecution linked to his leadership of a secret Presidential Task Force targeting terrorism financiers.
Ali-Keffi, a 30-year military veteran born in Kaduna on January 29, 1966, said he served in the Nigerian Army after training at the Nigerian Defence Academy and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He holds degrees in Economics and Defence Studies and occupied several senior positions, including Director of Training at Army Headquarters and Commandant of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry in Jaji. He also coordinated joint military training programmes involving Nigeria, the US, the UK and the EU, and led planning for the US–Africa Land Forces Conference held in Abuja in 2018.
According to the retired general, he was appointed in October 2020 to head a covert Presidential Task Force known as Operation Service Wide (OSW). The unit, he said, was mandated to identify, arrest and prosecute terrorism sponsors and financiers, as well as dismantle terrorist leadership structures.
Ali-Keffi claimed the operation initially recorded major successes, including the arrest of 48 individuals allegedly involved in terrorism financing and the capture or elimination of key Boko Haram leaders. He said OSW worked with intelligence partners from about 33 countries under the framework of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit.
He alleged that problems began in early 2021 after OSW submitted progress reports to the Presidency. According to him, pressure mounted to release some suspects, alongside attempts to bribe task force members—demands he said he rejected.
Ali-Keffi further claimed that the situation deteriorated after the death of then Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, and Brigadier General Abdulrahman Kuliya in a plane crash in Kaduna in May 2021. He alleged, without presenting evidence, that the crash may have been deliberate and aimed at crippling the task force, noting that the full investigation report has not been made public.
He said he was subsequently removed as General Officer Commanding of the 1st Division in August 2021, arrested by military police two months later, and detained for 64 days in solitary confinement under what he described as degrading and inhumane conditions. He claimed he collapsed during detention and was hospitalised under armed guard before being returned to custody.
On December 21, 2021, he said he was released and issued a letter of compulsory retirement without being charged, tried or court-martialled. He maintained that he has never been told what offence he allegedly committed.
In his letter, Ali-Keffi claimed that OSW investigations uncovered links between some terrorism suspects and highly placed military and political figures, including former Army Chiefs Tukur Buratai and Faruk Yahaya, as well as former Attorney General Abubakar Malami. He stressed that he was not accusing them of terrorism financing, but said their names surfaced during investigations.
He also alleged that all 48 terrorism suspects arrested by OSW were later released without trial after his removal from service.
Ali-Keffi said he has survived four assassination attempts since leaving the army, the latest occurring along the Kaduna–Abuja highway in June 2023. He added that his petitions to President Bola Tinubu and legal action against the Nigerian Army have yielded no results.
Citing what he described as Nigeria’s failure to protect him, the retired general is now seeking international protection for himself and his family, warning that without urgent intervention, their lives remain in “mortal danger.”
