Barely 24 hours after the arrest of Abubakar Abba, leader of the deadly Mahmuda terror group, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has announced it is on the lookout for another notorious bandit kingpin, Bello Turji, who has yet to surrender to military authorities.
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Abba was apprehended on Wednesday in Wawa, Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, following an intelligence-driven operation by the Department of State Services (DSS).
The Mahmuda group, an offshoot of Boko Haram, has carried out deadly attacks in parts of Kwara and Niger states.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-General Markus Kangye, confirmed the ongoing search for Turji while responding to questions on a peace deal reportedly facilitated by a cleric.
“Simple answer to the question about the terrorist leader, Bello Turji: Turji has not surrendered, we are still on the lookout for him,” Kangye said.
Earlier in the week, a prominent cleric, Musa Yusuf, also known as Asadus-Sunnah, told a religious gathering in Kaduna that Turji had released 32 kidnapped victims and pledged to halt attacks on local farmers after multiple meetings with Islamic clerics in his Zamfara hideout. According to the cleric, Turji also surrendered some weapons as part of a peace initiative aimed at restoring safety in the troubled Shinkafi Local Government Area.
The negotiations, held in July in the Fakai forest, reportedly involved Turji and other bandit leaders including Dan Bakkolo, Black, Kanawa, and Malam Ila.
Kangye also dismissed recent allegations by Amnesty International that troops operating in the Southeast engaged in extrajudicial killings.
“What do you mean by extrajudicial killing? Is it that soldiers carry their weapons, go to the street and start shooting people? You know what Amnesty International is doing. You know what they used to publish. But I can tell you that the military is not engaged in any extrajudicial killing in the Southeast,” he said.
On recent protests by some retired military personnel, Kangye said only a few individuals were involved and that the matter had been addressed last week by the Military Pensions Board, the Chief of Accounts and Budget at the DHQ, and the Minister of Finance during a meeting with the aggrieved veterans.
“This issue was addressed by the Military Pensions Board last week. When two or three jump up and use the mouths of others to send out messages, it can be said that retired personnel of the armed forces did this. But the few that came out met with relevant officials and the matter was resolved,” Kangye explained.
Also speaking, the Director of Defence Information, Brigadier-General Tukur Gusau, said the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, met on Tuesday with a five-man standing committee set up by the Ministry of Defence to address the veterans’ welfare concerns.
“They had a meeting with the CDS and modalities have been worked out on how to address the welfare needs of our veterans,” Gusau stated.
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