Residents Flee As Notorious Bandits Leader Bello Turji Attacks Sokoto
Notorious bandits kingpin, Bello Turji, has launched a fresh violent attacks aimed at seizing control of several communities in Sokoto State’s eastern district, beginning with a brutal raid on Tidibale village in Isa Local Government Area (LGA) on Monday night. It was gathered that the armed group stormed Tidibale in large numbers. In a video, during the attack, villagers were seen vacating their homes, forcing families to flee in the middle of the night to neighbouring communities for safety. A security alert issued by Bakatsine, a community-based security intelligence platform, confirmed the development and warned that the attack was part of a broader plan by Turji to dominate large parts of the eastern axis of Sokoto State. According to the alert, Bargaja village, also located in Isa LGA, was targeted days earlier, in what security sources describe as a systematic campaign to expand Turji’s control over strategic rural settlements. Despite repeated assurances by authorities, communities in Sokoto have continued to suffer attacks, abductions and forced displacement linked to armed bandit groups operating across the state and neighbouring areas. As of the time of filing this report, there has been no official statement from the Sokoto State Government or security agencies on the latest attacks. As villagers flee openly on major routes and bandits tighten their grip on abandoned territories, concerns are mounting over the stance of security forces. Observers are questioning how armed groups are able to seize and dominate communities while civilians are left to wander in search of safety—turning whole villages into refugees in their own country.
