Zamfara Banditry: Bello Turji’s Boys Strike Again, Abduct 10 Passengers, Burn Vehicle
A band of armed men suspected to be the foot soldiers of notorious bandit leader, Bello Turji, have abducted 10 passengers and set ablaze their vehicle along the Kaura-Namoda-Shinkafi Road in Zamfara State. This incident occurred just a day after the Defence Headquarters declared Turji “a dead man walking,” vowing that he and other terror masterminds would not survive beyond 2025.
Turji had issued a warning that he would resume the abduction and killing of innocent people in Zamfara and Sokoto states if his brother, Baka Wurgi, who is currently in military custody, was not released by the end of December 2024. Wurgi was admitted to the Shinkafi General Hospital where military personnel whisked him away from his hospital bed. Turji had threatened to launch attacks on the people of the area if Wurgi continued to be held by the military.
According to eyewitnesses, the bandits ambushed a passenger vehicle around 8 am while conveying 10 passengers to Shinkafi town from Gusau, the Zamfara State capital. The incident occurred at Kwanar Jalab village in Zungeru Ward, Shinkafi LGA. An indigene of the area, Garba Sani, said the bandits abducted all the passengers in the vehicle and finally set the vehicle on fire.
“This is the first time we are witnessing this sad event for bandits to burn a vehicle after abducting passengers,” Sani stated. “They used to kidnap people along the road but have never burnt vehicles after an operation.” Sani linked the incident to Turji’s threat over the detention of his brother, saying, “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 Baka Wurgi.”
A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Sani Shinkafi, has repeatedly urged security personnel to take action against Turji before the situation spirals out of control. Dr. Shinkafi stated, “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 continues sending videos of threats to innocent people and he is still not arrested.”
In response to Turji’s threat during an end-of-the-year briefing in Abuja, Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, had declared that Turji was “a dead man walking” and that he and other terror leaders would not survive beyond 2025. Buba said, “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.”
Efforts to get Maj. Gen. Edward Buba for comment were unsuccessful as he neither took calls nor replied to a message sent to his mobile as of the time of filing this report.
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