Following almost one year of pressure from the Trump administration, the Nigerian government may have finally be beginning to take action to defend the country’s Christian population, including the arrest of an alleged commander of a terrorist group who has previously been cozy with high-ranking leaders.
The bandits leader, whose name was given as Mahmoud Adam, was arrested in the early morning hours of September 12, 2026 at his compound in Plateau State, where he serves as a prominent Fulani community leader.
Photos provided by a whistleblower exclusively to the Daily Caller reveal that he has allegedly met with and received high-value gifts from Nigerian military leaders, while a current senator was said to have previously intervened to secure his release from custody.
A former U.S. intelligence officer with expertise in Islamist terrorism, described Adam to the Caller as the secret head of the Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) in Plateau State and surrounding Middle Belt states.
Nigerian journalist Masara Kim of Truth Nigeria has also reported “strong evidence linking Adam to deadly attacks in the State.
Adam, is also known as the Ardo (Mayor) of Mahanga.
Mahanga is what used to be Rankum, a Berom Christian community approximately 35 miles Southwest of Jos the State capital.
According to community accounts and local historians, the town was attacked and taken over on September 11, 2001 – the same day as the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
Residents say the attackers renamed it Mahanga, which translates to “watchtower.”
Since then, the community folks say Rankum/Mahanga has become a no-go area for Christians, including Fulani Christians, and is alleged to have been used as a staging ground for attacks in Plateau and neighbouring areas.
Mahmoud Adam, who has acted as the leader of the hilltop settlement, has been publicly named by community leaders and activists for years in connection with attacks in the area.
His recent arrest finally in early September, by law enforcement agencies, was traced to what they described as strong evidence linking him to deadly attacks in the State.
If confirmed, Adam would be leading one of the most dangerous groups targeting Christians in one of the most treacherous regions of the world’s deadliest country for Christians.
Kim said Tuesday that the “alleged mastermind” was recently arrested following “mounting evidence,” including confessions gathered from terrorists detained by law enforcement.
However, this wasn’t Adam’s first arrest.
A Muslim-Fulani whistleblower told the Daily Caller that he was in the room when Nigerian Senator and then-head of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, (names withheld), called on military authorities in 2024 and demanded they release Adam after a prior arrest.
Adam was released a few days later.
The whistleblower, a man named Hassan, told The Caller that he had used connections to embed in and gather information from local Fulani terrorist groups.
Photos corroborate that the senator and Adam have been in communication.
A 2023 Facebook post shows Adam sharing a couch with one other simply inside the Senator’s home during a celebration of his electoral victory.
The post, shared by Adam’s senior advisor, Abdullahi Yusuf, described the exchange between the two influential men throughout the night, saying that Adam thanked Allah for the senator’s and the other Muslim candidates’ victory before Buba offered a few words of his own.
“Distinguished Senator [names withheld] is very happy and expressed his gratitude to God and his happiness for the help that [Adam] has given him prayers to get this victory,” the post continued, adding that, “At the end, Distinguished Senator told [Adam] to go and continue with the Fulani people and do for the upcoming elections.”
The senator has been facing accusations of connections to banditry, terrorism financing, kidnapping, and other violent crimes happening in the country and is undergoing investigations by Nigeria’s security agencies while denying the allegations, Vanguard reported.
Additionally, Hassan alleged to the Caller that the senator has personally brought terrorists to Abuja to be trained and that he had personally seen the senator’s stockpile of heavy weapons and ammunition inside a restricted room at the Senator’s house.
Hassan also accused the senator of sponsoring terrorist/bandit networks, while using his political power to shield the group’s leaders.
Efforts made to get the senator react did not yield success as he did not respond to the Caller’s request for comment.
Another Facebook post shared by Yusuf showed Adam meeting with an unnamed Major-General in 2023.
The post said that Adam thanked the departing Major-General for their service, and the Major-General returned the thanks for their cooperation in Adam’s goal to “restore peace in Plateau State.”
After the meeting, the General “handed over” five motorbikes to Adam and his associates to ease their work in restoring peace.
Photos accompanying the post show Adam among those accepting the motorbikes, a mode of transportation often used by terrorists and bandits to quickly strike targets and escape.
While this is an anecdote, it is only one of countless allegations of terrorist-government collusion.
Hassan told the Caller that connections between officials and terrorist leaders are common, saying that officials would often have them visit their homes or gift them stays at luxurious hotels in the capital.
The whistleblower even recalled searching through one terrorist leader’s phone only to find his WhatsApp filled with the contacts of many of the nation’s leaders.
The photo shows Mahmoud Adam, among his men, receiving motorbikes from a Nigerian Major-General in 2023. (Photo from the Facebook page of Abdullahi Yusuf)
So if high-ranking officials have been buddy-buddy with terrorist leaders for a while, then what changed?
A senior counsel for Global Religious Freedom for Alliance Defending Freedom and a de facto spokesperson for the Christians facing persecution from these Fulani Ethnic Militias, Sean Nelson, told The Caller that he does not believe locals would have seen the additional security forces the Nigerian government has been providing the region over the last two weeks if not for the “strong and consistent pressure of the U.S. over the past year.”
Nelson has been the first from a group consistently critical of Nigeria’s complacency to acknowledge the improvements made, but is not ready to grant them full trust.
“For years and years, local Christian communities all across the Middle Belt have provided early warnings, have asked for additional resources, and have never received them until after serious attacks have occurred,” Nelson told the Caller.
“I am very glad that the government of Nigeria appears now to be cooperating more regarding both local community and U.S. demands for greater security for these embattled regions in the Middle Belt, but this must be a real shift that continues and expands, not just a one-off,” he added.
Nelson added that continual pressure over the next few years will be “absolutely necessary” to ensure the protection of Christians in the region.
“I hope that officials in Nigeria will understand the great benefits for these communities and for the whole country that will come by finally taking the Fulani militant threat seriously for the medium — and long-term and putting the necessary resources into solving this problem,” the senior counsel concluded.
While the U.S. State Department declined to tell The Caller if Nigeria’s arrest of Adam had been the direct result of American pressure, a department spokesperson said that “there remains a shocking level of violence against Christians in the Middle Belt committed by Fulani ethnic militias,” and noted that, “as President Trump has made clear, the United States will continue to work with the Government of Nigeria to protect Christians in Nigeria.”
Last October, Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, citing the thousands of Christians killed in the country in a year.
Since then, activists, Congressmembers and administration heads have been kicking the support of Nigeria’s Christians into high gear, creating immense pressure on its inactive government amid fears of negative press and cuts to U.S. aid.
While Trump has helped support actions against some of the nation’s many terrorist groups within the year, the arrest of Adam and the two-week increase in government protection of Christians may be a sign that the pressure is finally yielding the results these parties have been looking for.
Abdullahi Yusuf and the Nigerian military did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
(@Daily Caller, with additional reports from Arise TV and Global upfront Online newspaper)
