The clock may be ticking for Bello Turji, the most wanted terror chief in Nigeria’s northwest, but it has been ticking for years.
On Friday, Kachallah Buzu, recognised as Turji’s boss, was killed. Three days later, the Nigerian military reported that it had killed Baleri Fakai, one of Turji’s allies.
These recent victorious records of the Nigerian military could be tied to President Bola Tinubu’s decision to deploy the country’s military chiefs to the northwest. The military has been battling terror and insurgent elements in Nigeria’s northern region for over a decade and mass abductions, among other violent crimes such as massacres, resurface every month.
However, Tinubu is not the first to give special military attention to Nigeria’s rising insecurity. Former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration employed foreign mercenaries to help mitigate insurgency. Another report claimed Nigeria once looked to South African mercenaries to combat Boko Haram.
The Nigerian government denied using foreign mercenaries in 2015 Mohammed Mamu, a former Nigerian Air Force chief of administration, said Nigeria hired Ukrainian mercenaries in 2017.
Muhammadu Buhari, Jonathan’s successor, tried a different approach when terrorism was on the rise. Buhari ordered the cooperation of the military and the police to fight banditry in the region in 2020.
Like Tinubu with the recent deaths of these banditry kingpins, Buhari had his quick success records too, but he was not able to end banditry in the region.
While the deaths of Buzu and Fakai serve as a step closer to curbing banditry and ending Turji’s terror reign, Turji has remained untouched.
WHY TURJI’S DEATH WOULD BE A MAJOR SUCCESS IN CURBING BANDITRY
While the Buhari administration and Tinubu’s governments have been able to take down other bandits, Turji is one of the few common denominators both governments share in the fight against banditry.
In an interview with Daily Trust in 2022, Turji said the first time he saw a person slaughtered was “seven years ago”. He said he was not yet a bandit when that happened. So, it could be deduced that Turji’s banditry venture started around 2015.
Turji’s highhandedness has been so pronounced that multiple cases could be handpicked to highlight how much he had dared the government in the past without consequences. The terror leader creates the impression that he is invincible — or untouchable.
Turji was linked to the kidnap of Ibrahim Ma’aje, Zamfara State’s special assistant to the governor in 2023. He levied a N50 million tax on Moriki Village of Zamfara as compensation for the killing of his cow. Turji deposed appointed village heads in Zamfara at will, either by intimidation or force, among a plethora of terrors he has wrought in the region.
The terror kingpin has also built a network around himself with other bandits who pledge alliances to him, further strengthening his hold on Nigeria’s northwest.
TURJI SEES BANDITRY AS A MEANS OF GETTING JUSTICE
Turji has always tried to lend credence to his banditry activities by describing them as a means of seeking justice for the Fulani people.
By his account, the government sided with the Hausas against the Fulanis and he has, therefore, been unapologetic with all the carnage he has created.
Turji states that he opposes Yan Sakai, the Hausa vigilante group that has been responsible for the killing of many Fulani people.
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The bandit boss sees himself as a hero. In fact, a musician who identified himself as Adamu Ayuba sang a song for Turji in 2021, hailing him as a hero among heroes.
Turji’s web of influence stretches across Sokoto, Zamafara and Niger Republic.
MANY OF TURJI’S MATES ARE DEAD BUT TURJI IS STILL STANDING
Before and after Turji’s surge around 2015, the Nigerian military has taken down numerous bandits, most of them from the same northwest region where Turji operates.
The military killed Alhaji Karki, a bandit leader and Turji’s peer, in 2021. While he was alive, Karki terrorised Niger State, took innocent lives, committed arson and carried out abductions. Karki met his death while trying to overrun a military unit.
Like Karki, Diogo Rabe, another kingpin, was killed in 2022 alongside 42 other bandits in an Air Force strike.
The news of Rabe’s death came four days after a similar airstrike that had been targeted at Turji.
According to a report by counterinsurgency journalist Zagazola Makami, the Nigerian Air Force launched airstrikes on Turji’s camp in the Kagara forest between Shinkafi in Zamfara and Isa in Sokoto.
The report stated that the military launched the airstrikes after Turji and his boys had carried out a reprisal attack against a unit of the Civilian Joint Task Force at Forward Operating Base Isa, killing eight. Turji attacked the unit to respond to the unit’s killing of seven bandits.
In a reprisal attack, Turji and his allies once again stormed Rijiya Malladan and Harin Shalla. They set fire to the communities.
Again in September 2021, the Yan Sakai killed 11 Fulanis in Mamade Village in Gwadabawa Local Government Area, Sokoto. In retaliation, hundreds of bandits loyal to Turji killed over 60 innocent persons in Goroyo Market.
Following this, there were a series of military attacks launched at Turji, forcing him to relocate to Zamfara.
In Zamfara, Turji and his loyalists hijacked a lorry along the Garin Bawa area of Sabon Birni, and he set it ablaze, killing up to 30 passengers in December 2021.
An FIJ report revealed that Turji carried out the attack to react to the deaths of his cohorts in a prior military offensive.
Two other bandit leaders, Alhaji Auta and Kachalla Ruga, were also killed in 2022 after an NAF raid of a forest in Turji’s Zamfara region. ChannelsTV revealed that the bandits were killed when the Air Force bombarded them in a forest at Gusami and Tsamre in Birnin Magaji LGA of Zamfara.
Turji wreaked havoc every time the military neutralised his associates without consequences. The terror leader, however, continues to evade capture and death while sustaining nine years of terror in Nigeria’s Zamfara and the wider northwest region.
