Bandit Bello Turji leader accuses federal government of promoting banditry across northwest

BANDIT leader Bello Turji has accused Nigeria's federal government of being responsible for the incessant acts of banditry currently taking place across the northwest of the country claiming the criminal acts take place because the authorities benefit from it.

Over recent years, northwest Nigeria in particular has been plagued by the activities of heavily-armed bandits who have held the geo-political zone to ransom. They ransack local villages and kidnap people willy nilly, forcing their families to cough up huge sums as ransom fees and the overwhelmed security forces just look on helplessly.

Last year, Islamic cleric Sheikh Abubakar Gumi visited these bandits in the forests of Zamfara State and afterwards asked the federal government to grant them an amnesty. However, no settlement has been reached and their murderous activities continue, prompting Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State to ask local citizens to arm themselves and fight back.

According to Mr Turji, security chiefs, military personnel and some highly placed individuals make huge amounts of money from the activities of the bandits. He said that the government is fooling the gullible and naive people, stressing that it was not ready to salvage the situation with regards to ending the ugly menace.

Mr Turji added: “I am ready for peace or war depending on which one the government wants. It is the government that will decide which one it wants, whether peace or war.”

He pointed out that in August 2022, there was a peace accord between him and the government for him to cease fire which he obliged to. However, within a month, precisely on September 18, his house in Fakai village in Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State was attacked by Nigeria Air Force operatives.

According to Mr Turji, 12 people including his relatives died in the attack. He lamented the fact that since the peace accord between him and the government was signed, people in the axis have been living very peacefully, going about their legitimate business, including farming undisturbed, saying that the community relates with his gang members very well.

Mr Turji said: “By bombing my residence and killing 12 innocent people, the federal government is provoking me to drop the peace accord which I willingly signed. I always feel embarrassed whenever my name is mentioned in one attack or the other even when the attacks were carried out by another bandits’ leader which I don’t even know."

He added that security operatives were killing innocent and vulnerable people, destroying their properties and they are then holding him responsible. Mr Turji said that since he signed the peace accord, his gang members had never attacked anybody, not even after the military attack on his residence.