The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has denied reports that bandit kingpin Bello Turji has surrendered to the authority.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Markus Kangye, disclosed this in Abuja during a briefing on the activities of the Armed Forces.
“Simple answer to the question about terrorist leader, Bello Turji; Turji has not surrendered, we are still on the lookout for him,” he said.
Musa Yusuf, a prominent cleric known as Asadus-Sunnah, announced during a religious gathering in Kaduna on Monday that a notorious terrorist, Bello Turji, has released 32 kidnapped individuals and pledged to halt attacks on local farmers following multiple meetings with Islamic clerics in his hideout in Zamfara State.
He said the agreement also saw Turji surrender some of his weapons, marking a step toward peace in the troubled Shinkafi Local Government Area.
He revealed that the negotiations, held in July in the Fakai forest, involved Turji and other key figures like Dan Bakkolo, Black, Kanawa, and Malam Ila, who agreed to peace terms to allow farmers safe access to their lands.