Monday, February 10, 2025, made it exactly five months since Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Maj. Gen. Chris Musa made a vow that the military would bring an end to the reign of terror of notorious bandit leader, Bello Turji.
At a press conference held in Abuja on September 10, 2024, Musa pledged that it was just a matter of time before Turji who has been terrorizing residents of Zamfara and Sokoto States was either arrested or eliminated.
Describing the bandit leader as a deranged fellow who would soon meet his waterloo, the CDS vowed that he would soon be apprehended and his reign of terror brought to an end.
“On the issue of Turji, like I said, he is just a deranged individual who feels power, but I can bet you that it is just a matter of time,” Musa had said.
“We are going to get him and I can assure you within the shortest possible time, we are going to address that issue”.
With the assurance coming from the CDS, Nigerians and indeed residents of the affected states heaved a sigh of relief with the belief that Turji would soon be taken and they could go back to living their normal lives.
But five months after the celebrated vow, Turji has continued to run riot and has even portrayed the hallmarks of invincibility while he continues carrying out devastating attacks and assaults on the hapless communities, kidnapping at will while raking in billions in ransom payments, killing some of his victims, robbing innocent people and even attacking places of worships.
He has also developed a passion for displaying his atrocious acts on social media, often making videos of his exploits and posting them on TikTok and X, where he has been seen making a mockery of the futile military efforts to capture him.
In some of the videos, Turji who has now become the most wanted terrorist in Nigeria at the moment, has even had the temerity of calling out the CDS himself to come after him if he has what it takes.
In one of such videos shortly after Musa’s press conference, Turji, surrounded by heavily armed fighters and brandishing sophisticated weapons, had boldly called out the Army Chief by name and charged him to get all the weapons in the military arsenal and come after him.
In another video, Turji showed some of his kidnapped victims and insisted that a N50 million ransom he placed for their release must be paid before he would release them.
In yet another video, the bandit kingpin taunted the Nigerian government and security operatives, asking them when the chase for him would commence. He then asked rhetorically whether they were scared of him.
To add to the drama, Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, while briefing newsmen on the operations of the military in the year 2024 in Abuja, described Turji as a walking dead man who would soon go down like most of his lieutenants who have been eliminated by the military.
“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,” Buba had said.
“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.”
However, despite the vows and the boasts of the military high command, Turji still roams free, causing serious havoc in the aforementioned states, making life difficult for residents, and making people live in fear for their lives and property.
Despite their inability to capture Turji himself, the military has recorded some successes by taking out many of his allies, top commanders, and foot soldiers, including his son, as well as raiding and destroying many of his hideouts; but the main actor himself has still been elusive, always seeming to be ahead of his pursuers.
Many Nigerians are now asking if Nigeria’s military under Maj. Gen. Musa will ever capture Turji, and bring him to book, or was the vow to get him just a political statement to portray a semblance of confidence? Nigerians continue to wait in the midst of the killings and destructions to see if Gen Musa can indeed deliver.
