The Theatre Commander, Operation Fansan Yamma (OPFY), Maj.-Gen. Warra Idris, has vowed that the notorious bandit leader terrorising parts of the North West, Bello Turji, will soon become history.

“All things being equal, Bello Turji will soon be history in the North West region of Nigeria,” Idris told defence correspondents from Abuja, who were on a tour of the North West at the headquarters of Operation Fansan Yamma in Gusau on Wednesday.
The tour was organised by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ).
He said Bello Turji has been elusive but assured that with the current drive of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff and the Theatre Command of Operation Fansan Yamma, “Turji will soon be history”.
“I am saying this because, based on the most current intelligence received, Bello Turji, Gwaska and Nkaremi are currently in confusion and panic. This is because of the intensity of our current operations.

“They are relocating every few hours or every few days. This further portrays the aspect of human intelligence that we are talking about. Human intelligence is being actively utilised. Leaders of the bandit groups are being proactively pursued through all available intelligence and all available platforms,” the Theatre Commander said.
On insinuations that Turji controls some villages and a local government area, Idris said the bandit leader has no permanent location and cannot control any axis.
“I ask, how does a person who does not have a permanent location control an axis or control a local government? What we have here is a band of terrorists who move around, sometimes to the most remote areas, only to kill innocent civilians and citizens, then come to the media to claim they control something.

“I dare Bello Turji to come out and present a single local government that he is controlling. I agree that he is a violent man who moves around to harass innocent citizens, even in remote areas, and flees before our arrival.
“As mentioned earlier, Bello Turji, Gwaskadan Garemi, Ado Alero and Dogojide are currently on our trail. They are not stable anywhere. Let me mention that Sector 1 of Operation Fansan Yamma is currently in pursuit of Dogojide in the Shiroro area of Niger State. As we speak now, we are going to continue our efforts. We are not going to relent. We are looking for these terrorists and we shall get them eventually.”
Idris urged the media to assist the military in combating negative narratives.

On efforts being made to check the influx of terrorists from neighbouring countries, the Theatre Commander said Nigeria has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Niger Republic and Benin Republic to checkmate their movement across borders.
“The Lakurawa terrorists from Mali and Niger Republic — we have coordinated intelligence networks within the country and with our neighbouring countries. We have MoUs with Niger Republic and Benin Republic on the modus operandi to checkmate the movement of the Lakurawa terrorists.
“Last month alone, information was received about their movement from Mali. We checkmated them in the Kamba general area.

“We killed many of them and recovered their weapons and motorcycles. So, a network of information between Nigeria and its neighbouring countries in our pursuit of ending these terrorist activities around the Maghreb region and along our borders is in full progress, and we shall continue in that regard.”
Idris said that through human intelligence and available technology, troops were able to arrest three major logistics suppliers to terrorists in the last couple of days.
According to him, they are in custody for further processing, adding that some of them have already started “spilling the beans”.