Bello Turji, a notorious bandit operating in the North West, has reportedly relocated from Zamfara owing to intense military operation.

Sources disclosed that the terror kingpin and his men who were displaced by fighter jets of the Nigerian Air Force from their enclaves in Fakai forest in Shinkafi Local Government Area are now moving southwards of Zamfara.

The sources said the armed gangs have been spotted setting tents in Gando forest in Bukkuyum Local Government Area of the state.

Gando is a community located near a forest and is 35km south of Bukkuyum town, the headquarters of the LGA.

The community and many other villages in the district are being literally governed by the bandits.

Residents reported that some of the foot soldiers had erected thatched huts in an area inside the forest. They said the criminals were moving on motorbikes with some of them walking with herds of cattle.

“A bandits’ leader known as Shehu Bayade is the spearhead of deadly raids, kidnappings and cattle rustling in communities in Anka, Bukkuyum and Gummi Local Government Areas of the state,” a source said.

“We believe Turji and his boys were invited by Shehu Bayade to that forest. This is because in their own thinking, making the vast forest their abode would make their detection by NAF aircraft harder unlike where they had left.

“We are in serious trouble as a people. We are pleading with military and other security forces to extend their aggressive operations to this part of the state otherwise a safe haven for all sorts of dangerous people would be permanently created,” he said.

The spokesman of the state police command SP Muhammad Shehu could not be reached for comments at the time of filing this report.

Turji, the arrowhead of killings and kidnappings for ransom around Shinkafi, Sabon Birni and Isa local government areas in Zamfara and Sokoto states, had released over 50 captives, including pregnant women last week.

The release was seen as a peace move by Turji and his men but migrating bandits later killed over 60 villagers some days after the captives were released. (Adapted from a Daily Trust report)