The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has said Nigeria provided the intelligence that led to the United States’ airstrike on terrorist targets in the country and formally approved the operation before it was carried out.

Tuggar disclosed this on Friday while speaking on Channels Television, a day after the US confirmed it had conducted a strike as part of counter-terrorism operations.

According to the minister, the operation was the outcome of ongoing security cooperation between Nigeria and the United States and was not motivated by religious considerations.

He said, “It’s Nigeria that provided the intelligence. I was on the phone yesterday for 19 minutes with Secretary of State Marco Rubio of the United States.

We spoke extensively, and we agreed that I was going to speak with President Tinubu for President Tinubu to give the go-ahead.

“And I did speak with him and it was agreed also that the statements that would follow would be statements that would show clearly that it is a strike against terrorism and that it is part of the ongoing joint operations between Nigeria and collaboration between Nigeria and the United States.”