Bandits believed to be loyalists of notorious leader Bello Turji have reportedly abducted 10 passengers and set their vehicle ablaze along the Kaura-Namoda-Shinkafi Road in Zamfara State.
This incident follows a bold declaration by the Defence Headquarters, which described Turji as “a dead man walking” and vowed to eliminate him and other terror masterminds by 2025.
Turji had recently issued threats to resume abductions and killings in Zamfara and Sokoto states if his brother, Baka Wurgi, held in military custody, was not released by the end of December 2024. Wurgi, who had been receiving treatment at Shinkafi General Hospital, was reportedly taken by military personnel from his hospital bed.
On the heels of the missed deadline, Turji’s group is suspected to have carried out its first retaliatory attack.
According to reports, the bandits ambushed a passenger vehicle at Kwanar Jalab village in Zungeru Ward, Shinkafi Local Government Area, around 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
The vehicle, which was transporting 10 passengers from Gusau to Shinkafi town, was intercepted, the passengers abducted, and the vehicle torched.
An eyewitness, Garba Sani, described the attack as unprecedented. “This is the first time we are witnessing this sad event for bandits to burn a vehicle after they abducted the passengers. They used to kidnap people along the road, but they have never burnt vehicles after an operation,” Sani said, adding that the attack was likely linked to Turji’s threats over Wurgi’s detention.
“You are aware that Bello Turji had threatened to launch attacks in response to the arrest of his relative Wurgi. What happened on this road could be as a result of the threat by Turji to force the government to release his brother,” he added.
A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Dr. Sani Shinkafi,criticized the security forces for their perceived inaction, calling for urgent measures to address Turji’s threats.
“I am calling on the security agents to do something immediately to deal with the bandit leader Bello Turji before he wreaks havoc on innocent people. This is a slap in the face of the military personnel to continue folding their arms while a dreaded bandit leader, Bello Turji, continues sending videos of threats to innocent people and he is still not arrested,” Shinkafi said.
Efforts to reach the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, for comments were unsuccessful.
However, during an end-of-year briefing in Abuja, Buba addressed the threat, confidently asserting that Turji’s reign of terror would soon end.
“Indeed, Bello Turji is merely a dead man walking. It will be insulting to try to take issues or join words with a terrorist. Before him, there were other terrorists who boasted that they would deal with security forces. Today they have all been taken out. We will do the same with other terrorist leaders like him,” Buba declared.
“All these terrorist leaders that we are seeing today, before them, there were some that thought that they were champion upon champion. Where are they? They are buried. They are dead. And I assure you that those of them that are leaders today, commanders or whatever they call themselves, just watch out. I will from this platform tell you we have buried them (terrorist leaders) on the battlefield, because that is their fate in 2025. They are dead men walking. C’est fini,” he added.
