Suspected foot soldiers of notorious bandit leader Bello Turji have abducted 10 passengers and set their vehicle ablaze along the Kaura-Namoda-Shinkafi Road in Zamfara State.

The incident occurred a day after the Defence Headquarters declared Turji “a dead man walking,” vowing that he and other terror masterminds would not live beyond 2025.

The attack follows Turji’s ultimatum to the military to release his detained brother, Baka Wurgi, who was apprehended from his hospital bed at the Shinkafi General Hospital.

Turji had threatened to resume abductions and killings in Zamfara and Sokoto states if Wurgi was not released by the end of December 2024.

The bandits reportedly ambushed the passenger vehicle around 8 am at Kwanar Jalab village in Zungeru Ward, Shinkafi Local Government Area. The vehicle was en route to Shinkafi town from Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.

An indigene of the area, Garba Sani said the bandits abducted all 10 passengers in the vehicle and then set it on fire.

He said, “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.”

He said the incident was most likely linked to Turji’s threat over the detention of his brother.

“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,” Sani said.

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Dr Sani Shinkafi, has on several occasions urged the security personnel to do something about the threat by Turji before the situation went out of control.

He said, “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.”

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, during an end-of-the-year briefing in Abuja on Tuesday had addressed Turji’s threat, saying that his days were numbered.

He 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.

“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.”

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