Following intense military onslaught againt bandits in Zamfara State and the killing of two leaders of terror groups and their followers, another kingpin, Bello Turji, has released dozens of victims his group kidnapped.
Turji has released 52 kidnap victims as part of his efforts to appease the Zamfara State government towards granting him an amnesty.
Informed sources in the state, including a Government House official confirmed the development on Monday.
Turji had earliar written a ceasefire letter to President Buhari, Governor Bello Matawalle and the emir of Shinkafi.
In the letter, he outlined five conditions for the ceasfire.
His current gesture is coming a few days after Nigerian Air force jets bombed to death two other bandits’ leaders and their followers in Gusami forest in Zamfara State.
Saturday’s air force bombings are part of the renewed efforts by the military to decimate the various terror groups operating in the North-west where thousands of people were killed and kidnapped in 2021.
Mohammed Humility, a resident of Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State, said on Monday evening that the abducted victims were from communities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, and Birnin Magaji local government areas of Zamfara State as well as Isa and Sabon Birni LGAs of Sokoto State.
“We were expecting them from morning but they were released around 7 p.m. Five buses were chartered by some officials and sent to a river bank for the meeting,” he said.
He said the freed captives were being taken to Gusau, the state capital.
Another resident, Salihu Shinkafi, a senior lecturer at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, said he spoke with someone who met the released victims.
He added that the release of the victims could be because of the killing of Alh Auta, a notorious bandit leader, by air force bombs.
